



•-rm 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Oliap. Copyright No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



^ 



THE LADDER OF GOD 
4ND OTHER SERMONS 



THE LADDER OF GOD 

AND OTHER SERMONS 



KENNETH SYLVAN GUTHRIE, A.M.(Harv.), PH.D.(Tul.) 



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PHILADELPHIA 
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO. 

103 Sputh Fifteenth Street 
1896 



V 



The Library 
OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 






Copyright, 1896, by 
K. S. Guthrie 



TO HIM 

WHOM I LOVE AS A FATHER, 

WHOM I CHERISH AS A FRIEND, 

AND WHOM I REVERE AS A SAINT, 

THE REVEREND DOCTOR IN DIVINITY, 

JOSEPH D-. NEWLIN, 

THESE DISCOURSES PREACHED IN 

THE CHURCH OF THE INCARNATION 

ARE DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon. Page. 

I. The Ladder of God 1 

11. The King's Beauty 10 

III. The Beatitudes 16 

IV. The Evohition of Conduct 23 

V. The Parable of the Sower 32 

VI. The Stars of God 39 

VII. The Daily Bread 44 

VIII. The House Built on a Eock 50 

IX. The Patience of God 86 

X. The Miracle of Feeding 63 

XI. Silence 68 

XII. The Keys 75 

XIII. Bochim 82 



I 



r^ 



I. 

THE LADDEE OF GOD. 

*'And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on earth, and the 
top of it reached to heaven: and bdhold the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending on it." — Gen. xxviii: 10-22. 

After his shameful crime, home was no place for 
Jacob. Rebekah felt that imm.ediately ; and as soon as 
convenient she sent him forth to Laban, her brother, 
both for protection and marriage. The whole affair 
mnst have broken like a thunderclap over the boy Jacob. 
Dwelling quietly at home, he must have expected to 
live there all his life, — and then suddenly, that deed of 
shame, urged by her whom he revered as mother; then 
the imminent danger of death by the hand of his brother, 
and then, the sudden change of his prospects in life, 
sneaking out of the camp, and travelling over the un- 
known fields of Palestine, alone, face to face with the 
inscrutable majesty of nature — we can imagine his ex- 
citement, and his terror. Cowed and wearied, he sank 
down by the roadside, near Luz, to. wait for the morning. 
But as he slept, in the deep sleep of night, the veil of 
flesh was removed from his eyes for the moment, and he 
glanced deeper than usual into the spiritual realms with- 
in the universe, and he saw God. 

We must now deal with (1) God's apjparent reward to 
Jacob for his crime; (2) the place where the ladder ap- 
peared to Jacob, and (3) lastly the ladder of God. 



The Ladder of God. 



I. In one sense, a very shallow sense, it seems as if 
God were rewarding Jacob for his crime. This of 
course is nonsense. God must be just, or He would not 
be God. But we must distinguish between human and 
divine punishment. Human punishment is revenge, 
more than anything else. For instance, a man commits 
a cold-blooded murder. The human manner of dealing 
with him is to execute the murderer, demanding eye for 
eye, ear for ear, tooth for tooth. This is mere revenge,, 
for we give the murderer no opportunity of doing better. 
But the object of di^dne punishment is not revenge; it 
is amendment. Therefore, as soon as the criminal soul 
lias determined to amend. Divine Justice is satistied, al- 
though retribution must inexorably be fulfilled, later on^ 
Jacob had to spend twenty years in exile, in labour and 
in sorrow, before he could return home. As soon as the 
soul has, however, determined to return homeward from 
its slough of sin, so soon does God draw near to the soul^ 
announcing to it the fact that He has accepted its re- 
pentance, and that the latter end of the soul shall make it 
all well again. He grants such as encouragements to the 
soul in its upward way; lest it despau' of ever returning 
home, after such grievous falls. God is always closest to 
those who need Him most, and His comfort comes per- 
haps more sensibly close to those who are just returning- 
to Him than to the ninety and nine who are assured of His- 
love, by former experience. They need nothing to as- 
sure them that to those who love God all joy shall be 
given by their Father. Consequently, we need not be 
anxious if sometimes it seems as if God had ceased to- 
come close to our soul. There is no actual need of His 
appearance to us, whereas the stumbling sinner needs 
the Presence of God in some tangible conscious assur- 
ance. Therefore God appeared to penitent Jacob, in 
his hour of need. 



The Ladder of God. 



II. Why did the Vision come to Jacob near Luz^ 
and not somewhere else? Was the place particularly 
sacred? Had God promised to appear there more fully 
than He would elsewhere? 'No; for Jacob was thero- 
by the mere chance of travel, and Luz was a city of Phil- 
istines who presumably did not worship the God of 
Abraham. Why was this the very gate of Heaven? 

Because Jacob himself was there. 

God appears to man as much in one place as- 
another; God would be as close to a saint of His if he 
\rcre in Patagonia, as if he were in Greenland, in Pales- 
tine, or in the United States. Wherever the heart is re- 
pentant, and in need, there is love and help of God. 

Although we can find God everywhere, there is for 
every one of us a particular Bethel, a particular gate of 
heaven; and that is our sleeping apartment, in which we- 
may retire in privacy to communion with God. We- 
may sleep in Bethel, in the house of God, every night. 

We are told that man is the temple of God; and true 
is that saying. If we realized it more, we would treat 
our body with greater reverence, and would not expose- 
it to so much frivolousness and meaningless foolishness 
as we do. We w^ould not defile it bv useless Words 
which do not come from our hearts ; we would show forth, 
divine dignity in every action. 

But it may be asked, how is our body a temple of God ?" 
We may take as an example the fact that at one and 
the same moment it is possible for man to hear sounds^ 
see light, and with hands feel the solidity of earthly 
things. There is a universe of sound of which man is 
conscious by means of his sense of hearing. We cannot 
see or feel sounds. Likewise, we exist in an universe of 
light which we can neither hear nor feel with the hand. 
And so forth. But because man has several senses so caii: 



The Ladder of God. 



he at one and the same moment dwell in these three 
diflFerent universes. 

In the same way, there are three universes that inter- 
penetrate each other: matter, mind or intelligence, and 
spirit, of which three universes each man partakes by 
the means of his body, his mind and his spirit. Our 
common physical universe here we all share; the mental 
universe is here also inasmuch as we can understand 
^acli other, understanding the words we use in speaking 
to each other. Of the spiritual universe we are only 
conscious when God opens our spiritual vision, as he did 
to Jacob, with his head on the stones, outside of the city 
of Luz. 

Thus, wherever a soul is in need and in sorrow, there 
is the love and mercy of God ready to bless and to com- 
fort it. And that our spiritual vision may be opened bj 
the teaching of our conscience is it that we pray to God, 
day and night. 

These truths Mrs. Browning well knew: 

''Eaith'6 crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God: 
But only he who sees takes off his shoes. 
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, 
And daub their natural faces unaware 
More and more from the first similitude." 

]^or was Moore ignorant of them: 

""At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly 

To the lone vale we loved when life shone warm in thine eye; 

And I think if spiiits can steal from the regions of air 

To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there 

And tell me our love is remembered even in the sky. 

Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear 

When our voices comming'ling breathed like one on the ear; 

And as echo far ofi through the vale my sad orison rolls. 

I tliink, O my love, 'tis thy voice from the kingdom of Souls, 

Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear." 



The Ladder of God. 



III. When God shall open our spiritual vision, as He 
opened Jacob's, I believe that we will see what Jacob 
saw, a ladder resting on the ground, and reaching upward 
to the sky, reaching up to God Himself. 

Perhaps many of us suppose that God has left His 
world long ago to take care of itself. Many of us sup- 
pose that we are living this life of ours as best we may^ 
that it is a great mistake to think that God is still with 
us every moment and every hour in this world. Many 
of us think that, given the law of gravitation, and the 
law of the survival of the fittest, there is no good reason 
why we could not without further presence of God 
evolve a world much better than this one of ours. If 
our 'eyes were only open we would see that angels are 
ever ascending and descending the ladder between this 
world and God. There ascend the souls of those who 
have passed ^way, there ascend our prayers; there de- 
scend the souls of the children, and the angels sent to 
comfort, to inspire, to strengthen us. God is ever reach- 
ing out in infinite love to His wandering children. Ever 
is He sending us strength, and good thoughts, pure de- 
sires, and impulses of unselfish love. 

This conception of a ladder between man and God 
has various lessons for us, besides that of an assured 
means of union between our imperfection and the full 
harmony of God. 

In the first place, it shows us that it is possible for us 
to rise to the very highest sapphire wall, for we see in 
moments of clearness of vision the whole ladder, up to 
the very presence of God. 

Then it shows us that we can rise to God only by the 
accomplishment of a definite number of particular ac- 
tions or deeds. There is no hocus-pocus about the way 
we ascend Godward. It is not sufiicient to go through 
some magical rite, some mysterious incantation by 



The Ladder of God. 



^4iich we are suddenly transported to heaven by an an- 
^ehc balloon. 'No; the road to heaven consists of just so 
many definite, natural, explainable, and intelligible 
steps. Our upward labour is piece-work, not work by 
the day. You may take a whole lifetime about it, or 
you can do it speedily; but you cannot shirk any single 
step. Poor or rich, young or old, all caa do this; and 
this piece-work is demanded of all. When you try to 
mount a ladder, you rise only by ascending definite steps, 
of which you can shirk no one; you rise by piece-work, 
not by magical wings. 

Thirdly, the ladder is for our feet, not our heads. 
Some people imagine they can get to heaven by some 
single momentary act of faith or belief; leaving the body 
as sinful, as foul, as weak as ever. No ; the whole body 
must rise too, if the head would. We can't reach heaven 
without a change in the morals and the direction of the 
life. The only solid advance for our souls is when our 
whole being changes; we can only rise on a ladder when 
the whole body ascends. 

Fourthly, it takes some effort to go up the ladder; it is 
-easy enough to fall down. As it is impossible to fall 
upward, we cannot rise heavenward without effort, with- 
out struggle, without sorrow, tears and prayers ; but there 
is no difficulty in falling back earthward; nothing is nec- 
essary but to let go, and lie back comfortably. Conse- 
quently, we may know that if we are not making any 
offort, we are not rising heavenward, and are falling 
backward; for as yet no man has invented a process by 
which he can fall upwards without giving himself some 
offort. How many of us are leading a comfortable, care- 
less life? How many of us are not rising at all? 

Fifthly, we can only go up a ladder one step at a time ; 
and if we do this, the other steps will take care of them- 
selves. It is likewise in the spiritual life. It often hap- 



The Ladder of God. 



pens that the devout soul is worried concerning the fut- 
ure. Will the dark cloud that hangs over the future 
be lifted? Will enough strength be given to fulfil some 
great step which is seen to be inevitable? Apply here 
the lesson of the ladder. There is only one way to reach 
the high rung; and that is to put the foot on the 
next higher one. And it is impossible to reach the high- 
est rung except by placing the foot on the rungs between. 
So in the spiritual life. There is only one way of be- 
coming strong enough to do the great distant duty, and 
that is to perform faithfully the small one next at hand. 
Conversely, it is impossible ever to fulfil the great dis- 
tant duty except through the despised and insignificant 
duty of to-day. So may we all take courage in doing all 
that we should do to-day, and to-morrow; and God will 
bring the day after to pass. 

Sixthly, when a man is going up a very tall ladder, 
when he is up about a third of the way, it almost seems 
as if one step did not bring him much nearer the top; 
and yet he does not stop climbing because he cannot see 
at each step just how much higher he is rising, for he 
knows that every step brings him just so much closer to 
the top, although he cannot see it plainly. Likewise in 
our life; the ladder of our life is so long that it almost 
seems as if one deed more or one deed less would not 
bring us closer to God. We think that among so many 
actions, one action by itself is worth nothing. But we 
know by faith that each single action brings us just so 
much closer to God, just as each time the sun sets, we 
are a day's march nearer home than we were in the 
morning. Each action, each thought counts just that 
much in our ascent to God. 

Lastly, our ascent must be regular. Almost all of ua 
have probably at some time in our lives gone up a tall, 
rickety ladder, and when far from the ground, have felt 



8 The Ladder of God. 

very much inconvenienced if one rung was broken, or 
if two or three were missing. So in the spiritual life. 
Is it not strange how the same person goes to Church 
regularly during the winter, and never in summer? How 
during Advent and Lent there are short flare-ups of de- 
votion, followed by long intervals of dormant torpitude? 

Besides, what were the use of a ladder if it were per- 
fect the whole way up, with the exception of just enough 
missing rungs not to be able to reach the next one above ? 
What is the use of God's providential opportunities for 
sanctification for us in the future, if to-day we slide back 
just far enough not to be able to take to-morrow the all- 
important step which shall be the key of the whole 
future? 

Again, what would you call him who would take one 
meal to-day, six to-morrow, twenty the day after, none 
for the next two weeks, sixteen the day after, two the 
next day, and nothing for the next month? And yet 
there are devout and earnest souls who in their comforta- 
ble self-conceit have not the slightest idea that they are 
fools, but who feed their souls just as irregularly. 

Regularity in the revolution of the sun, the moon, 
the stars, the ministration of angels, and the care of the 
body are the essentials of our life here; and so does the 
growth of our souls demand that every daily opportunity 
for prayer, for development, for infiltration of divine 
love, shall be embraced, since each opportunity lost is 
gone forever, and can never, never be made up for. 
Only with such regularity can our nature grow rounded, 
and avoiding the one-sidedness of those whom we call 
so aptly "cranks," develop into the fulness of the meas- 
ure of the stature of the Christ, the sanest, the kindest, 
the gentlest, the most harmonious of our ideals. 



^ 



The Ladder of God. 



Josiah Gilbert Holland well says: 

"Heaven is not reached at a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
FroH) the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And we mount to its summit, round by round. 
I count this thing to be grandly true: 
That a noble deed is a step toward God — 
Lifting the soul from the common clod 
To a purer air and a broader view. 
We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust. 
When the morning calls us to life and liglit. 
But our hearts grow weary, and ere the nig^t, 
Our lives are trailing the sordid dust. 
Wings for the angel, but feet for men ! 
We may borrow the wings to find the way— 
We may hope and resolve and aspire and pray; 
But our feet must rise, or we fall again. 
Heaven is iDot readhed at a sing^le bound; 
But we build the ladder by wlhich we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies. 
And we mount to its summit, round by round." 

And what shall we see at the top of the ladder? 
The ineffable beatific vision of the King in His Beauty. 

That is the end of our lives, to attain to the presence 
of God Himself. God grant that we may all of us attain 
it. 



II. 

THE KING'S BEAUTY. 

""Thine eyes shaU see the King in his beauty." — Isa. xxxiiiii/. 

It is very, very strange, my beloved, that the great 
proofs for the existence of God which have been ad- 
vanced in the past all hinged on the fact that God is 
Thought, or Being, or Justice, or Love. Doubtless, 
when we have reached the conception that God is Love, 
we have reached one of the highest and most sublime 
conceptions of which a man is capable. And yet, there 
is an equally high and sublime conception most of us for- 
get; namely, that God is Beauty. 

Just as all love begins and ends in God, so does all 
beauty begin and end in Him. Wherever we see the 
faintest indication of Love, there we reverently step aside 
— for we know that there abides the Shekinah of the Most 
High. And we forget that where we see the faintest in- 
dication of beauty, there we should be silent and un- 
cover our heads — for there too abides the Di\dne Pres- 
ence. 

And I think that if we reflected carefully for a few 
moments, we vrould see that the reason why all hearts 
turn instinctively towards God is that He is the greatest 
beauty that man is able to know, although there must 
be infinite abysses of beauty infinitely too deep for man 
ever to sound them. Those who by personal, inner 
communion with God have beheld even the face of an 



The King's Beauty. ii 

angel have forgotten all other beauty they may have 
witnessed before; for the beauty of purity and love is 
such that the human heart loses itself in an ecstasy at 
sight of it. 

God is then the First Beautiful, the source and end 
of all other beauty ; that of which all else is but an image. 

II. There are but few souls who are privileged with 
an inner direct communion with God. These are de- 
prived of the greatest beauty which they are capable of 
knowing. Yet God has not left them comfortless; the 
Universe we see, that in some sense may be called a 
vesture, a garment, a veil of God, reveals a faint impress 
of His image. 

Nor need we deplore that this image of God is so 
little like God that we may not recognize God from His 
image. For Athanasius makes this the great point of 
his polemic against the heathen, that the world, namely, 
Nature, is such a good likeness of God, that anyone who 
contemplates it carefully and lovingly will be led to 
knov/ God. This likeness is so good, that no man can 
plead any excuse whatsoever for remaining in the dark- 
ness of doubt about Him. Within each of us is the road 
by which, through contemplation of the Divine Image 
called Nature, we may recognize the features of God 
Himself. 

For this reason, I think, cities are sad places for 
children to grow up in. They are thus deprived of a 
birthright, inherent in every heart, of coming to know 
God by the contemplation of Nature. And if God^s 
providence has indicated to us that we must live in 
cities, where we can only see a piece of the sky as largo 
as a man's hand through smoke and noise, then we should 
as religiously as we go to Church, take moments of leisure 
and go to the forest or wild mountain, where we may 
from time to time catch glimpses of the living voice of 
God. 



12 The King's Beauty. 



Picture to yourself some mountain you know; some 
Niagara, some Ocean-beach, some virgin forest, a hun- 
dred miles from any city; some valley hidden in the 
mountain-fastnesses; picture to yourself a golden sun> 
rise, or a purple sunset; picture to yourself the ineffable 
beauty of the stars; picture to yourself any of these 
common objects; or, merely look at the blue of the sky 
at day-time; and then tell me, if you can think of any- 
thing more beautiful. Do you not see a majesty, a calm- 
ness, a glor\' that reminds you of the beauty of God? 

There is so much beauty, if we would but look at it! 
Every merchant's store is full of beautiful objects which 
we can admire without buying, if we are too poor. Wher- 
ever you go, there is some tree, some strip of sky, some 
dozen stars which we can see, even in the heart of the city. 
Oh, how much beauty we waste, day by day! I think 
that this is the saddest of all sad things for those who 
have reached a certain age; that they have wasted so 
many thoughts of beauty, and beautiful thoughts! And 
therefore I think it is the duty of all those who have 
the guardianship over children, to teach the child to 
look up, and to admire and reverence Nature. 

I think that this is the sin of those who whip horses, 
and who catch flies to tear out their wings. It is a 
direct insult to the image of God in that object; a 
diabolical instinct of making ugly, of disgracing the 
natural beauty of God Himself. 

I think that this is the very saddest thing about the 
introduction of electric street-cars; that we see so many 
less horses. Each horse, each dog, each cow is perfectly 
beautiful if we will but stop to notice it. There is 
nothing so small that does not show forth the beauty of 
God, from the sparrow and canary, to the little common 
house-fly. 



The King's Beauty. 13 

III. Thus we have seen that there are two things 
which are present everywhere, and which may be called 
the most beautiful things; God, and the World. But 
there is a third. 

Did I not say that the city was a sad place to live in, 
because tliere we v/ere deprived of the beauty of Nature ? 
Yes, it is sad ; but it is sublime ; for in the city we see more 
than in the country the Third Most Beautiful thing in 
existence, Man. 

Yes, there is no more sublime occupation than standing 
still at a busy crossing, seeking to recognize the beauty 
of God in the faces that come and go. That is the true 
human Sursum Corda, when the heart is lifted not to the 
clouds, but to heaven; beholding the infinite variety of 
the thoughts of God, and seeing the dignity of each sep- 
arate and individual human soul. 

Do you say that some faces have no beauty at all? 
You are mistaken. There is not a single soul that lias 
ever lived that was not beautiful ; but each was beautiful 
with its own beauty. The maid and the matron, the 
youth and the man, each are beautiful with their own 
beauty. The young woman who seeks to keep her youth- 
ful beauty by cosmetics is a fool ; for she is just as beauti- 
ful in tlie beauty of a matron as she could ever be in 
that of a maid. Greatest of all, even beyond that of a 
child, is the beauty of the aged woman and man; for that 
is the time when the liuman face expresses more nearly 
the divine and disinterested love of God, and the feeling 
of Fatherhood and Motherhood at last shines througli 
this veil of flesh. Greatest of all, is the soul that has seen 
God: 3"oung or old, cripple or whole. And I wonder 
not that artists have painted the Virgin Mary and the 
saints of old witli halos around their heads; for T have 
seen many faces in my day, around which I believe to 
have seen the calm glow of the Divine Light. 



14 The King's Beauty. 



I often hear people say: Oh, when shall I be delivered 
from this ugly awkward body? and I feel like answer- 
ing: Oh, how long will you be given by God the privilege 
of dwelling in this beautiful human body of yours, this 
perfect expressor of your thoughts, which you can make 
the temple of the Holy Ghost? 

How shall we make our temples — for I will not call 
them only bodies — ^more beautiful? Not by cosmetics, 
or garments of harmonizing colours; but by expressing 
through them beautiful thoughts; thoughts of love in 
healing the sick and assisting the poor; thoughts of glory 
ineffable, by learning to perform beautiful harmonious 
music; thoughts of universal broadness, by memorizing 
the great thoughts of the great souls of all ages, in prose 
or poetry, and letting them vibrate on every chord of 
one's nature, until they shall be part of one's being, and 
the soul shall be glorified. Oh, teach children beautiful 
poetry; they will never forget it! 

And if children be taught beauty in early years, in 
their more mature age they will even imitate God's crea- 
tive power, and compose music, paint great paintings, 
and write poetry. Sad is the history of that soul that 
has never exercised that divine prerogative of creation, 
of giving from oneself beauty, just as the ecstasy of God 
is that He gives away His beauty to all who can receive 
it. None who has once felt the divine rapture of 
creation, can ever forget it to all eternity. 

But above and beyond all this, there is still a surer 
and shorter means of beautifying our temples. Just as 
the City of Washington, D. C., is only important to 
the United States because the Government is there, so 
no human temple is of any importance to the world unless 
God, the Governor of all things, abide in it. Do you 
want to beautify your body? Let God dwell in it; let 
the shadow of His presence brood over the anguish of 



The King's Beauty. 15 

your life; open yourself to Him, and He will come, 
never, never, to depart. This, this is the marriage of 
the soul to her God. 

Do you ask why so few people find beauty, if it 
is true that it is so close to us as not even to be near? 

I will answer this question if you will answer my 
questions. Tell me why musicians and artists are so 
often said to lead bad lives? Why do men and women 
seek to remain young, or to be considered young? God 
knows; and may God have mercy on those who mistake 
passion for the divine instinct for beauty. 

These are the three greatest, most beautiful things; 
God, Nature, and Man ; how beautiful they are ; how they 
are everywhere if we will but lift up our eyes to look 
at them; how divine they are, Nature, Man, and Godl 



III. 

THE BEATITUDES. 

S. Matt, v: 3-12. 

When Israel had just entered tke Promised Land, 
Joshua, according to the promise made to Moses, com- 
manded half the people to stand upon Mount Ebal, and 
half the people to stand upon Mount Gerizim, and to 
answer Amen to the Curses which the sons of Le\i pro- 
nounced. The last of them was in this wise: Cursed 
be he who confirmeth not all the words of this law to do 
them. And all the people said, Amen. (Deut. xxvii: 26.) 

When Jesus began his ministry, and had just chosen 
His disciples. He preached on a mountain near Caper- 
naum, with great crowds of people flocking around Him. 

And He opened His mouth to utter the Beatitudes. 

The difference between the two events is striking. In 
one case the people were bound to perform the law by 
curses; in the other, the teaching was recommended to 
the hearts of the people by the fact that it began by in- 
voking blessings upon them. 

This fact is, moreover, characteristic of all the teach- 
ings of Jesus. His message was the Evangel, the good 
message, the tidings of great joy, the good news. He 
came that we might have life. How deeply this im- 
pressed tlie disciples may even be inferred from the fact 
that the teachings of Jesus were called the G ^spel on this 
very account, that they were tidings of so y t joy; the 



The Beatitudes. 17 



great consciousness that God is so loving that He seeks 
to reach us if we will only let Him bless us. Man need 
not strive, and struggle, and cry, for God comes down 
to man, if man will but not interfere with God's work, 
in him. 

I desire to notice the application of this positivity of 
the Gospel in the realms of Metaphysics, Theology, and 
the Practical Life. 

I. Let us consider, first, the bearing which this practi- 
cal Gospel has on our Metaphysical world. 

A man can only give that which he possesses. If I 
am a pauper, I cannot give you a gift of a million dollars. 
Likewise, Jesus could only bless with the blessings 
which He had. He must have possessed the blessings 
in order to give them. Both God and Man can only give 
of their own; so God blesses, and the natural Man 
curses; but the Man who is in the likeness of God will 
also bless. 

That God blesses means that God is full of all bless- 
ings. Blessings are all that is good; and what is good 
is reality. 

God is all existence. There is or exists nothing out of 
Him. All that exists, is so far in Him. Still things 
that exist, the earth, the moon, the sun, and the stars, 
all are part of Him ; but above all that we can think, all 
that we can feel, all that we can know, is He in His per- 
sonal being, in oceans of unapproachable light. The 
Universe, and all that our sense can know is only the 
husk of God, so to speak. And this is matter, the husk 
of spirit, the lowest form of existence, but, in as far as it 
is existence, in God, and part of God. 

Evil then does not exist. The opposite of existence 
is non-existence — and non-existence does not exist. Evil 
exists only inasmuch as a conscious being thinks of it. 
Refuse to recognize it, and it ceases to exist. But what 



l8 The Beatitudes. 



we call evil, in our lives, is only a lower form of good. 
In such a sense we are evil before God, because we are of 
a lower form of Good than His nature. 

The consequence is, that man knows evil with cer- 
tainty, and only knows of good by faith. God knows 
actually that there is nothing but good, and looking do%vii 
upon us, can only see the good in and around us. So, 
the di\'ine man, who has grown into the image and 
likeness of God, knows for certain that the kernel of 
the Universe is eternal good and love; and looking on 
man, knows the good that is in him certainly, and can 
only see in what we call evil a transitional stage from a 
lower to higher form of being. 

On tliis touchstone every man is tried. If he knows 
for certain that good is the foundation and end of our 
lives, it is a proof he has entered beyond the husks of 
existence. If, again, his only certainty is that there 
is evil, sorrow and pain in this world, then it proves 
his eyes have never beheld the furthest image of God; 
just as when a person has never seen any of the stars 
in heaven, w^e know that he is short-sighted. 

II. I want to notice, in the second place, the theologi- 
cal bearing of this philosophy. 

The kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world 
are in sharp contradistinction. You cannot serve God 
and Mammon; either you will serve God, or you will 
serve Mammon; for their commands are contradictory 
one to another. 

God says: Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is 
the kin^^dom of heaven. Mammon savs: Blessed are 
those who know how to get along here, for theirs is the 
kingdom of earth, whatever happens hereafter; a bird in 
the hand is worth two in the bush. 

God says: Blessed are tliey that mourn, for they 
shall be comforted. Mammon says: Blessed are they 



The Beatitudes. 19 



that have a good time, for they do not need to be com- 
forted. 

God says: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit 
the earth. Mammon says: Blessed are the enterprising, 
for they do not need to wait to inherit the earth, it is^ 
theirs already. 

God says: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
after righteousness; for they shall be filled. Mammon 
says: Blessed are they that do not worry themselves 
about righteousness, for they will not need to be filled. 

God says: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall 
obtain mercy. Mammon says: Blessed are they who 
draw interest and dividend regularly, even if the house- 
hold goods of the poor have to be sold. 

God says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
shall see God. Mammon says: Blessed are those who 
know how to be agreeable in social intercourse, for they 
shall be invited to all balls and receptions, and shall 
see Society. 

God says: Blessed are the peace-makers; for they 
shall be called the children of God. Mammon says: 
Blessed are the lawyers, for their deposits in bank grow 
large. 

God says: Blessed are they which are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake. Mammon says: Blessed is the politi- 
cian who is the intimate friend of everybody, who has 
kissed every baby in his district, and who cannot be 
quoted on any side of any question, or can be quoted, 
like Gladstone, on every side of every question that 
has arisen within the last twenty years. 

God says: Turn your cheek to the smiter; Mammon 
says: Hit back every time. 

Mammon says: Enjoy the world; God says: Live so 
that you may see God. 

You cannot serve both God and Mammon; but you 
choose; voluntarily, or subconsciously. 



20 The Beatitudes. 



III. I want to notice, in tlie third place, the appli- 
<^ation of this principle to practical life ; and that means, 
firstly, to the world in general, then to the neighbour, and 
lastly, to one's self. 

(1) The world is full of evil, if you look for it. 
There are saloons at every corner, there are gambling- 
houses, and a thousand gates to hell. The newspapers 
are full of them, if you look. Corruption, fraud, brib- 
ery, deceit, theft, and a thousand other nameless crimen 
abound. 

But for every gate of hell, God has put ten gates of 
Heaven. There is the lovely sunshine, the colours of 
the sunrise and sunset, the stars, the fields, the rivers, 
the ocean. Then there are Churches, and better still, 
a thousand sweet homes in which the light of the Spirit 
shines. There are hearts who have had deeper vi.-ions 
than you or I think possible. God meets us everywhere, 
knocks everywhere, shines everywhere. 

Is'ow, why do you and I see all the evil and none 
of the good? Firstly, because we are seK-conceited. 
It amuses us to see people so much worsejthan we are. 
"We are lenient to the criminal, because he makes us 
feel how good we are. It amuses us by no means to see 
people who are better than we are; and when we meet 
them, and recognize their superiority over us, we make 
the excuse that we are better than they in some other 
particular. 

But secondly, we see evil because we are evil. Have 
jou never noticed how^ it is usual to learn a great deal 
about a thing immediately we have becom^e acquainted 
with it? As soon as we learn the name of a town, we 
€ee it everywhere. And beneath this observation there 
is a psychological truth; attention is conditioned by in- 
terest; that is wdiy the congregation goes to sleep during 
the sermon, and no College Student ever goes to sleep 



The Beatitudes. 21 



while a foot-ball game is going on. The reason, there- 
fore, that we see evil is that we are interested in it. 
Therefore Jesus never saw evil in the world, for He had 
no interest in it. 

If then you complain that the world is evil, and that 
the times are going mad, you may know the fault is in 
yourself. 

(2) Our neighbors are all, in our estimation, les.^ 
right than we are ourselves. If we should cut out from 
our conversation everything that referred to the evil 
we saw in our neighbours, people would be very much 
bored at receptions. If, you, as Jesus, refuse to re- 
cognize the contradiction of sinners, you are not likely 
to find any evil in them. 

If you greet every neighbour of yours with a smile 
and a kind word, as Jesus began His Sermon on the 
Mount with benedictions, you will be surprised to find 
how many smiles and kind words you will get from the 
very crustiest. 

(3) But in respect to ourselves, the application of 
this principle of life will be of great value. 

Do not spend all your energies avoiding the evil, 
but believe that the heart of the Universe is good, and 
that your destiny is divine, and you will get self-assur- 
ance in the struggle, you will learn to trust yourself 
to the good Father God and His Christ. And by the 
might of that faith, that ^^Thine" and not the Devil's 
is the Kingdom, we shall defy the Devil and all his hosts, 
so to speak; which means, that you will grow stronger, 
purer, and better. 

Then, as our eyes shall become purer, we shall see 
God Himself around us, and we shall not faint under 
the burdens of life; for, in the words of the Psalmist, 
every one of us had fainted, unless we had believed 
to see the goodness of the Lord in this desolate land, 
which we by mistake call the ^'land of the living.'' 



2,2 The Beatitudes. 



Blessed be the poor in spirit; blessed be they that 
mourn; blessed be the meek; blessed be they which hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness; blessed be the merci- 
ful; blessed be the pure in heart; blessed be the peace- 
makers; and, above and beyond, and beneath all this, 
blessed be our Father and our God ! 



IV. 
THE EVOLUTION OF CONDUCT. 

''For (we know in part, and prop'hesy in part: . . . For 
now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: . . . But 
n^ow aHdeth faith, 'hope, love, these three; and the greatest of 
these is love." — i Cor. xiii:9-i3. 

If an intelligence from some other part of the Uni- 
verse should determine to visit the Earth for one single 
day, the spectacle presented to it wonld indeed be strange. 
There would appear to exist on earth a number of 
different kinds of human beings, some fuU-gTown, some 
half-grown, some yet in their cradles. These would 
appear to be separate races, every one of them different 
from every other one. Each would appear to be quite 
distinct, and separated by an impassable gulf from every 
other one. There would be no indication to point out 
that the child would finally grow into the youth, and 
the youth finally into the man. On the contrary, they 
would appear to be distinct races which could not by any 
manner of means merge into the other. From dawn 
to dusk, the closest scrutiny could not detect the slight- 
est change, and could not reveal aught but a multitude 
of different races of human beings of differing sizes. 

This supposition is not very far-fetched. Every 
child looks upon the world in just this way until he 
is told that he himself will some day be as full-grown 
as any man he sees, or until sufficient observation brings 
this truth home to himi. 



24 The Evolution of Conduct. 

If this foreign intelligence should remain on earth 
for forty years, at least, it would see that the spectacle 
which astonished it at the start was very natural. At 
any one moment, there coexist a number of human 
beings at different stages of physical development; 
which, in their own time, will yield to succeeding 
stages, so that every human being passes through all 
of the stages of life, from childhood, through youth, 
manhood, and age. 

The change is however so gradual, that during one 
day, that is, for one space of light between two spaces 
of darkness, all human beings appear to remain at the 
same stage of growth, being and remaining distinct 
and separate. 

When we spoke of four ages through which every hu- 
man being developed normally, we were inexact in our 
phraseology. There are not four ages; there are as many 
as there are days through which the human being lives. 

The change is regular and very gradual, and if we 
choose four ages, we choose these particular four only for 
the sake of convenience, as being four very representa- 
tive times of life. 

In all this that we have said, we have faintly portrayed 
the cycle of physical growth which every human being 
reveals in its existence on earth. Let us apply 
this, as far as we can, to the growth of our souls. 

When we look around at the souls about u?; we are 
struck with the amazing difference that obtains among 
them. We are not here referring to the differences 
of disposition, but to the differences of development. 

The Children of Israel were all of one family; yet, 
they were divided into twelve separate and distinct 
tribes; equal one to the other both in dignity and at- 
tainments, yet totally different in characteristics, as we 
easily gather from the separate blessings which Israel, 
on his deathbed, bestowed on the twelve Patriarchs. We 



The Evolution of Conduct. 25 

are the spiritual Israel, and like them we all belong to 
one family. Yet there are among us different tribes, equal 
the one to the other both in dignity and attainments, 
but totally different in characteristics. So we expect 
that erery one of our brethren will be differ- 
ent in disposition from his brother, although equal in 
dignity and attainments. But the difference which 
obtains between souls is not so much one of quality 
as one of quantity; of development; of perfectness; of 
purification. There have always been materialists and 
altruists in the world. The materialists, and also the 
altruists consider their own view of life the exclusively 
true one; and many times, the closest scrutiny reveals no 
change, in the whole life; further than that natural 
to the times of life ; many a materialist remains a material-^ 
ist to his dying day; many an altruist remains an 
altruist to his dying day; materialists and altruists seem 
to belong to different races, which could never merge 
or change. 

While this present life is the only opportunity of 
purification of which we are absolutely certain, there 
are doubtless other periods of progressive sanctification. 

The reasons for such a belief, if it be no more than a 
belief, we cannot give here, from lack of space, so that 
we shall assume that every soul has opportunities of 
Banctification until it be quite perfect. 

If then we could glance at all the periods of puri- 
fication of one particular soul, the whole apparent diffi- 
culty would be solved. At any one moment, a number 
of souls coexist at different stages of spiritual develop- 
ment, which stages, in their own time, yield to eacli suc- 
ceeding stage, so that every soul passes through all 
the stages of spiritual development, from materialism to 
altruism., and from altruism to consciousness of the Divine 
presence. 



26 The Evolution of Conduct. 

The change is however so gradual, that during our 
life, most souls seem to remain at the same stage of 
development, being and remaining distinct and separate. 

Reflection will lead us to qualify this statement. 
The growth of the body is remorseless and inexorable. 
You can neither change nor delay physical growth a3 
long as food and shelter are satisfactory. The growth 
of the soul, on the contrary, can be hastened or delayed. 
The soul possesses self-consciousness, and may, by earn- 
est endeavour, hasten its development through any 
one stage. While some souls, during this life, do not 
seem to change their stand-point at all, others clearly 
show marks of satisfactory development. Many men 
.are conscious, from time to time, of a change of moral 
stand-point, in which the higher invariably succeeds the 
lower stage. And it is from such regularity of develop- 
ment, that we assume that if we could see all the 
stages of purification, we would see that each soul in its 
own time passes through the different stages of develop- 
ment. For all souls are equal, and in order to attain 
equal crowns must endure equal trials. 

There are as many stages of spiritual development 
as there are trials which the soul must endure before 
it becomes perfect. The change is regular and gradual, 
so that if we choose four stand-points of the moral life, 
we choose these particular four only for the sake of 
convenience, and because they are eminently representa- 
tive stages of soul-development. They are the child- 
hood, youth, manhood and age of the soul; they are, 
first, passion; second, material selfishness; third, spiritual 
selfishness; and fourth, devotion to the divine Will. 

In order to grasp this conception, it will assist us 
materially if we compare the life of souls in this world 
to the attendance of a youth at College. The Col- 
lege course embraces four years; the Freshman; the So- 



The Evolution of Conduct. 27 

phomore, the Junior, and the Senior. In her Freshman 
jear, the soul is given up to her passions, and she is 
forced to stand examinations until she is promoted to the 
Sophomore year, having fully understood that passion 
is not all of life. In her Sophomore year, the soul em- 
braces material selfishness, and she is forced to stand 
examinations until she is promoted to the Junior year, 
having learnt, once for all, that such material selfishness 
is only a small part of her ideal. In her Junior year, 
the soul becomes selfish in spiritual matters, and she 
is forced to stand examinations until she is promoted 
to the Senior year, having learnt, once for all, that she 
cannot rest in any form of selfishness. In her Senioi 
year, the soul learns that the purpose of her life is not 
to be saved or to save others, but to do the Will of God. 
If she stands all her examinations satisfactorily . . . and 
God does not leave her alone until she have stood them 

creditably then she receives the crown of life, 

and comes into the immediate presence of her Lord 
and Master, her Friend and Father. 

In a College of learning, if a student fails in his exam- 
inations for two years, he is usually dismissed. There is 
not, however, I love to believe, such a thing as failure 
in the College of Life. Our Father loves each soul with 
a love so tender that He w^ill not let it fail, but keeps 
it at it until it succeeds. The only thing the student has 
to determine is how quickly or how slowly he will go 
through the course. 

Let this much be said concerning the idea of progres- 
sion. Let us now turn to examine closely the curriculum 
of the different years of the College of Life. 

The curriculum of the Freshman year is purity of 
all the senses. The stand-point of the soul was passion, 
however much learning, refinement, and culture the 
soul may have been privileged to ac(|uire. Every 



28 The Evolution of Conduct. 



action of the soul proceeded consciously or unconsciously 
from the desire of enjoying the gratification of the 
senses. During the greater part of the Freshman year 
the soul is a slave to its lusts, to the lust of drink, 
of anger, of hearing, or seeing, or touching. And though 
the soul was at times conscious of being a miserable and 
contemptible slave, the blessed Father in heaven did 
not diminish His love for her, but wrestled with her 
by day and by night until she stood the final examination 
of resisting lusts satisfactorily, and was promoted to the 
Sophomore year. 

A great numl)er of souls that are on earth at the 
present time are still in their Freshman year. Grant 
God they may soon be promoted! 

The curriculum of the Sophomore year is faith. The 
stand-point of the soul is material selfishness. The 
soul has once for all abandoned the stand-point of 
passion, and now desires all the material goods which it 
can bring together. Many sojohomore souls are in 
appearance freshmen and junior souls; but their true 
rank can always be discerned by noticing whether or 
not the end of their actions is anything which is good 
in the eyes of this world; riches, rank, fortune, fame, 
good report, and all the comforts of wealth. Painting, 
drawing, music and poetry are at times found here, 
althouo:h these arts have all the tendencv to make the 
final examination of this year easier. There are many 
artists who pursue their arts for the sake of the glory, 
of the fame and fortune. In their case, however, paint- 
ing, music and poetry drag the ' sophomore soul back 
into the Freshman year of passion, so that art in itself 
need not be an unmixed good. There is no doubt that 
it is a very valuable means of ^Vaking'' the soul to the 
spiritual world around her; but at the same time it may 
let the sentiments degenerate into passions; and the soul 



The Evolution of Conduct. 29 

that has fallen back when its eyes were open, is in a 
very much worse plight than if it had never risen. For 
when the eyes are opened to the spiritual world, the soul 
will see the evil which it felt but could not see before; 
so that the powers of evil have no longer an indirect, 
but a direct hold over the struggling soul. I said that 
the curriculum of the Sophomore year was faith. When 
a soul still dwells in the material world, she cannot 
lay hold of the truths of the spiritual world by any 
other means than that of reasonable faith; the soul still 
is childish; she acts, thinks, and feels as a child; she can 
only see as through a glass darkly; she must guess, 
trust and believe much in order to keep close to the truths 
of religion. If the sophomore soul then clings to the 
truths of religion by mere intellectual faith, if she 
be not capable of more than this, the time will come 
when she will be able to read the infinite depths of 
truths which the deepening vision will discern therein. 
So that faith, even blind faith, if necessary, is a good 
for the sophomore soul, in order to wean her, if possi- 
ble, from the goods of the external world. 

The curriculum of the Junior year is hope. The 
stand-point of the soul is spiritual selfishness. The 
spiritual eyes and the spiritual ears have been opened to 
the realities beyond this world of matter, to the realm 
of the angels. The soul sees that only spiritual good 
is lasting and valuable. Therefore she tries ^^to be 
saved," to "go to heaven;" she strains every nerve, by 
drills, exercises and vigils and fasts, to conquer her 
road to God, in spite of the devil and all his angels, 
. . . and, alas, almost in spite of God Himself. This 
is the standpoint of the BuddhistvS, Theosophists, Oecult- 
i^^ts, or Christian Scientists, who are determined to storm 
heaven, and whose attainments are so wonderful — and 
they appear wonderful at times — that the Gods in the 



30 The Evolution of Conduct. 



heaven of Indra are, by Kalidasa, represented as trem- 
bling before them. But, when it is all taken in its best 
light, it is little else than the most intense selfishness that 
human brains could devise. If spiritual things are more 
valuable than material things, then selfishness in spiritual 
things is more intensely selfish than selfishness in material 
things; and selfishness is the reverse of Divine. Spiritual 
pride and conceit abound here ; every soul is the Messiah 
of the world, although he be not received by anybody else 
than himself. The higher the souls rise, the greater dis- 
tance can they fall ; and therefore the dangers of the 
quicksands of the selfishness of the Junior year are infin- 
itely more dangerous than any former dangers. Love 
alone can point to the narrow hidden path of safety. And 
hope is needed to seek something higher than what seems 
highest; to seek salvation by yielding up the hope of it. 

The curricnlum of the Senior year is love. It is spiritual 
unselfishness; when the soul is so transported at the in- 
finite beauty and love of the Master that she is willing 
to lay aside even the hope of salvation in order to lay her- 
self dowm in His pierced hand, that she may learn to do 
His wdll, and His will alone. 

There are few souls that ever reach the Senior year 
within our own narrow sphere of common observation. 

By the time that a soul reaches the Senior class, she 
speaks a new language. The words of Thomas a Kempis, 
Tauler, Fenelon, de Molinos, S. Teresa, S. Bernard of 
Clairvaux, are rubbish and bosh to the Sophomore soul; 
and much more so to those who are yet in the Freshman 
class. And yet they are palpitating with divine life, 
light, and love to those who know how" to read their in- 
finite depths. 

The curriculum of the Senior year is love. God is love ; 
and the more God-like we become, the more loving we 
become. 



The Evolution of Conduct. 31 

After the final examination we receive the crown of 
life, and see the Master face to face. Where, how, when, 
this final examination takes place for each individual 
soul, God alone knows. But the redemption of the Man 
of Sorrows assures us that we too shall grow up into all 
the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ. 

Beloved, each of your souls, and my soul, is in one of 
these classes. You alone and I alone can tell in which; for 
we alone know whether the present criterion of our lives 
is comfort and gratification, or the approval of the world, 
or the salvation of our souls, or the fulfilling of the 
divine AVill. God have mercy on us, indeed, and 
give us purity, and faith, and hope, and love ; God grant 
us soon His jjeace, that strengthens, and calms, and puri- 
fies. 

^Tor we know in part, and prophesy in part: but when 
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall 
be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become 
a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see 
in a mirror darkly; but then face to face : now I know in 
part ; but then shall I know even as also I have been 
known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; 
and the greatest of these is love." 

^Tor I reckon that the sufferings of this present time 
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall 
be revealed in us'' (Rom. viii: 18). 



THE SOWER. 

S. Matt, xiii: 3-9; 18-23. S. Mark iv: 1-20. S. Luke viii: 4-15. 

Of all the Parables of the I^ew Testament, this Parable 
of the Sower is one of the most important. It is usually 
reckoned that there are thirty-eight Parables in the ^ew 
Testament; of these twenty-nine are recorded by one 
evangelist, three by two, and six by three, this Parable of 
the Sower being one of the latter six. It must have evi- 
dently impressed all of the evangelists very much, and 
must have meant a great deal to them, or they would not 
all have recorded it. Let us see how much it can mean to 
us. 

I. We must, in the first place, inquire as to the mean- 
ing of the Parable. 

We are told that the seed fell on the wayside, on stony 
ground, among thistles, as well as on good ground. No 
sower is so careless of his seed to-day, apparently. The 
reason of this carelessness is that in Judea it was cus- 
tomary to sow seed by placing it in a bag perforated with 
holes, placed on the back of an ass, who was driven up and 
down the field, so that the natural jolting of his step 
would spread the seed out around him. 

The first point I want to make is that the seed was scat- 
tered broadcast irrespective of the kind of ground. The 
seed was not only sown on good groimd, but on all kinds 
of ground: good, bad, and indifferent. 



The Sower. 33 



The application of this point is as follows. God scatters 
His benefits on all men, because they are men, whether 
they be good, bad, or indifferent. Just as God sends His 
physical sunlight on the just and the unjust, so He pours 
£oods of true, intelligible, real spiritual sunlight from the 
Sun of Righteousness on all men, just and unjust. 

With God, there is no such thing as respect of persons. 
He loves all. He seeks all with the same desire of Hia 
Father-heart. No one soul has a greater chance of ap- 
propriating His intelligible light than any other. His 
seed of love is thrown everywhere. 

The second point I want to make is the reason why 
equal fruit did not spring up everywhere. The only rea- 
son was the condition of the ground. The way-side was 
so hard that it remained on the surface, until birds of the 
air picked it up ; and the spiritual life which was destined 
to bring forth fruit to the earth strengthened the fowls of 
the air who are enemies to the fruitfulness of the ground 
The stony places would not admit of any seed striking 
root; and the sun withered the tender shoot. The thorny 
places choked the seed, and did not permit air or sunshine 
to reach the growing stem of wheat. The good ground 
was good only because it was perfectly receptive of the 
seed, and permitted the seed to strike root into itself, to 
draw from itself all its nourishing juices, and to cover it 
up so no air or sunlight could reach it. 

The reason why equal fruit did not spring up every- 
where was the receptivity of the ground. The limit of 
the fruitfulness of the ground was not the amount of seed 
sown upon it, but the amount of cultivation bestowed up- 
on it. 

This leads to the third point. The wayside, and the 
stony ground, and the thorn-patcli could have beeu made 
as fruitful as the ground which yielded a hundred-fold; 
all that was necessary was cultivation, care, and ma* 



34 The Sower. 



nuring. If the ground which yielded a hundred-fold had 
been left to itself for a few years, it would have become 
thorny, stony, and as hard as the way-side. 

Why does the grace of God bear an hundred-fold in the 
heart of one man, and nothing at all in the heart of some 
other man^ The same amount of seed has been sown; 
but the hearts of both are not equally ready to receive the 
seed given to both. What is the sinner to do if he de- 
sires to become a saint? Not to ask God to sow more seed 
in his heart, but to make his heart more unselfishly recep- 
tive of it. The goodness of the ground which bore an 
hundred-fold was its receptiveness; the goodness of a 
heart that is pure is its receptiveness of the light of God. 
The badness of the wayside was its imperviousness to the 
seed; the badness of the heart of a criminal is its imper- 
viousness to the light of God. What then is the difference 
between the heart of the sinner and the saint? One is 
impervious, the other is receptive to the light of God. 
How shall the heart of the sinner become saintly? 
By becoming more receptive to the light of God. This is 
my third point; in order to make my heart evil, I only 
have to make it impervious to the intelligible light; in 
order to make my heart good, I only have to open it up; 
and God's seed of intelligible light will enter, and strike 
root, and then the human breast will become the temple 
of God, and God will dwell once more among the 
children of men. 

All this seems self-evident enough, we say. But when 
we speak of ^^opening'' the heart, it is not so clear just 
what is meant by this figure. How shall our hearts be 
opened ? 

If we return for a few moments to the Parable, we shall 
notice how the ground was prepared for the seed. Firstly, 
the ox trampled the flowers and weeds. Secondly, the 
plow reached down deep into the heart of the earth. 
Thirdlv, the seed had to be harrowed over. 



The Sower. 



Firstly, the ox trampled the ground. If any of you 
have walked in the fields just before the time of sowing, 
after the land has lain fallow for many months, especially 
in fruitful countries such as Palestine, you would have 
noticed what a luxuriant crop of grasses and flowers had 
grown up of their own accord. Thorns, immense bushes 
of thorns, would have had time to grow and to bloom. 
Think how the ground m^ust have been humiliated to feel 
the flowering thorns of which it was so proud, cut and 
trampled down! How the good ground must have en-- 
¥ied those patches near the fence which were not thought 
worth cultivating, and which still gloried in all their luxu- 
riant vegetation ! The delicate field-flov/ers of the East, 
the tender green grasses with their veined leaves and 
plumed crest — all this ruthlessly trampled down, without> 
consideration, or compassion. 

But the trampling was not the worst part of it; if it 
had been trampled by a horse, or a man, or by something 
noble, the ground would not have cared so much. If the 
people who took our money, who trampled on our best 
efl'orts, were refined, gentlemanly, sensible, who would 
know how to use the money or the advantage taken from 
us nobly, it would not be so bad. But to have an ox, a 
stupid, lumbering, hulking ox, who ate nothing but hay,, 
and was always going over and over the same ground, and 
knew no better, to trample down the sweetest flowers we 
had ever been able to produce — ah, that is hard indeed ! 
The ox does not even notice the flowers of our life on 
which he tramples! The money that is taken from us 
goes to swell the coffers of those wdio do not need it, and 
to whom it is so small a sum, they do not even use it for 
self-gratiflcation, while it was all we had to live on, and to 
enjoy! 

Does not this seem evil enough? Can we imagine any 
greater misfortune? Ali, yes; the iron must yet enter 



36 The Sower. 



our heart. The cold, glittering steel must noiselessly pass 
through the midst of our life; the plow must cast the 
furrow. 

Firstly, the plow casts the furrow noiselessly. We 
would not object if, when we knew we were to lose all, we 
might lose it all in some great catastrophe of which all the 
world should hear; if the telegraph should announce our 
misfortunes every^vhere! But, alas, nobody notices us. 
Like a ship at sea which goes down into eternal silence, 
so do we simply drop out of notice, into darkness and 
silence. Nobody knows or hears we are an unsuccessful 
hero, and inglorious martyr — and to the end of our days 
we tell to our acquaintances how great Ave used to be. 

Secondly, the inmost recesses of the ground are en- 
tered by the deaf, dumb, brutal, cruel steel. Cries, 
prayers, entreaties, are in vain; nothing will stop the bit- 
terness, the diabolical agony. We cry out that there is no 
God! Oh, the nights of agonies and tears, the useless, 
helpless prayers and sighs ! 

But this is not all! Thirdly, the very inmost recesses 
of the heart are thrown up to the light, to the public gaze. 
Our most sacred convictions are the laughing-stock of the 
world. The poor woman has lost her husband ; she must 
work for a living; she must sew early and late, till her 
heart is weary, and her eyes inflamed and burning. She 
has no more time for her spiritual life ; and if on Sundays 
she catch a f ew^ moments of sleep, this is her greatest 
prayer. She has no time to be good ; her companions are 
poor and degraded; the whole world beholds the torn 
depths of her heart, and these, her most sacred dreams, 
are trodden under the foot of the plowman, who remorse- 
lessly follows the plow. 

Ah, how that plowed ground envies the patch that has 
been left to grow up with those beautiful, stately thorns, 
covered with many-coloured blooms! Oh, how that poor 



The Sower. 37 



woman envies — naj, worships the feet of those who stand 
near her, in wealth^in riches, in ornaments, in happiness, 
in peace, in amusement, in laughter ! Oh, how she weeps 
her eyes out at the very tliought of the lot of the happy! 
And I wonder what she would think if she knew the truth 
of it all ! If she knew ! 

But she does not know. jSTot only has the ox trampled 
the flowers, not only has the plow thrown the furrow high 
— not only this ; but the hard, ugly-looking, foreign seed 
is harrowed into her heart until in spite of herself that 
ugly thing has become a part of herself. 

She no more repines; for she has given up the hope of 
life. She has given up the hope of nreserving her indivi- 
duality. She is ready to die; she waits impatiently till the 
angel of death shall come to free her from this barren 
bitterness. She has become stupefied, bewildered, sense- 
less, having only enough power left to exist, to exist 
until death shall free her from earth. 

And then? 

And then, one morning she wakes to the presence of 
God — no, not out of the world, but in it ! A new world 
has opened to her; she is born into the kingdom of 
heaven. On her coucli she can hear the song of the An- 
gels of Bethlehem, Glory be to God in the highest, Peace 
and Good-will to men! Then, she brings forth the fruit of 
good works; lier w^ords and deeds feed, clothe and com- 
fort the wandering children of God; she brings forth 
Christ in her breast — and now, she thanks God for her 
pain. 

Does the cultivated ground still envy the thorn-patch? 
Not it ! The thorn-patch has its divinest pity and compas- 
sion. 

Now, my beloved, let us ask ourselves the difference 
between the first and last condition of that woman's heart. 
As long as it was hard and self-conceited, it could not 
even admit to itself the Divine seed. It only became 



38 The Sower. 



fruitful when it became passive and obedient to the in- 
fluence of the plow and the seed; for that plow would 
have passed over and over the same ground until that 
earth was properly soft enough to receive and nourish the 
seed ; and as soon as the plowman saw the earth was soft 
enough, he stopped passing the plow through it. So is it, 
jny beloved, with God's plow in that woman's heart. For 
its own sake that heart must be made soft enough to ad- 
mit the Divine intelligible light. Until that heart is pas- 
sive enough, it must be plowed over and over; but as soon 
as it is passive enough, the Divine plowman will stop; but 
not before. 

Why not then, my beloved, hasten the process? It is 
true that the earth cannot become broken up of its own 
accord; but we who are rational creatures, can fall on our 
knees, and by ceaseless prayer prei)are for the Advent of 
the Christ-Child in our hearts. For prayer, and purity, 
and love will force open the windows of the soul so that 
the blessed sunshine of God's intelligible light may flood 
ihe depths of our heart. 

Just as the physical sunshine enlightens every man 
^vho does not retire into his house, and close windows and 
doors, so the intelligible light enlightens every soul that 
does not retire into the flesh and its lusts. Do you want 
to see the physical sunlight? Open door and window, and 
nothing can keep it back. Do you want to be enlightened 
by the intelligible light of the Word or Logos of God? 
Open the doors and windows of the flesli, by calming it 
and its lusts, and our heart will be purified and sanctified, 
by God himself. 

This is our righteousness, that God is righteous within 
us. 

And wherexer the ground was ready, the seed which 
was fruitless on the wayside and the stony and thorny 
.ground, yielded an hundred-fold. 

Would to God that our hearts v/ere ready! 



VI. 
THE STAKS OF GOD. 

''We iliave seen His star in the East, and are come to worship 
Him."— S. Matt. ii:2. 

The greatest beauty of nature, the sky, with all the 
stars, is open to the view of all who care to gaze at it ; and 
yet w^e can almost count on our fingers the times we have 
gazed at its sublime glories. We love the dross of this 
world too much to look up at the eternal beauty above us. 

I think that children have much to teach us, in this re- 
spect. They will gaze and gaze, and never tire of looking 
into the unfathomable depths of Heaven. They have 
only recently come thence; and although the pains of 
earth have already obscured their little memory of their 
eternal home in the breast of God, an instinct draws their 
hearts to the sky and its scintillating stars. Many a little 
child loves the stars so much that he will reach out his 
tiny hands to grasp one, and will cry himself to sleep be- 
cause he cannot make one of them part of his young life. 

Although we may laugh at his desire, there is no doubt 
but that there is a deep meaning to his imsatisfied yearn- 
ing. For, my beloved, if he only realized it, he is as di- 
vine and glorious a star as any one of them. Think of it, 
he himself is a star of God, sent to the world to enlighten 
it! To gladden the heart of his Mother! To strengthen 
the hands of his Father who is growing old! To learn to 
know and show abroad the great truths of life ! To make 
the world better, happier, and purer for his having lived 
in it! And last, but not least, to show forth unto all tliat 
the higliest destiny of man is to do the Will of God! 



40 The Stars of God. 



Every soul is a star of God, blazing with divine light 
behind the veil of the flesh, lighting the way to the cradle 
of Bethlehem, to the belief that God is love ! 

We cannot help learning much, if we will but look up- 
wards to the sky. 

If you have ever gazed any length of time at the stars, 
long enough to tell tliem apart, and to become familiar 
with each individual star of the greater sort, you will have 
noticed that everyone has a different colour, and seems to 
possess some individual characteristic. 

You all know, for instance, of tbe star called Alde- 
baran, in the Constellation Taurus. Astronomers say that 
he is a mighty sun, thousands of times larger than ours; 
and yet you may always tell him by his fiery redness, flash- 
ing and darting a thousand angry colours. He is not 
conscious what a disagreeable impression he makes upon 
the universe. He, like many an overbearing and angiy 
man, is so selfish that he does not reflect how bad an ex- 
ample he is to all who are within sight. How many Alde- 
barans we meet every day of our lives, who little reflect 
how they are spectacles to men and angels all over the 
Universe ! 

Then, there is the star Antares, in the head of the con- 
stellation Scorpio. He is one of those green stars you 
meet every day at teas and receptions, and in their own 
parlours. Envious is no name for them; they envy any- 
body's success, and will do things for you just as long as 
you are successful or can be of use to them. 

Then there is the star Eegulus in the constellation Leo. 
He has a reddish-blue selfish stony look, wko proposes to 
have his own way whatever betide. Those stars usually 
think themselves remarkably kind and yielding; but all 
the same he is going to have his way. Eegulus is not ugly 
about it; not he; he knows better. His face is always 
wreathed with smiles; but he is stony beneath it. If he 
takes a dislike to you, he will plunge a knife into your 
heart with the grace of an Apollo, with the plausible 
speech of an advocate. 



The Stars of God. 41 

Of course you all know Sirius^ in Ganis Major. He is 
perhaps one of the most beautiful stars in the sky. ffis 
splendour, shining in January and February, beneath the 
constellation Orion always attracts attention. Why, is 
he not beautiful, sparkling and glowing in every colour 
of the rainbow, blue, silver, purple, crimson, emerald, and- 
gold? But astronomers tell us that he is only the biggest 
because he is nearest the Earth, farthest away from the 
sky. Ah, how many Siriuses we meet who glow in mag- 
nificence unparalleled — why, because they are far from 
God, and nearest the earth with all its passions! Are 
there no Siriuses inside the Church of Ghrist? WTio 
always head subscription lists when a display is needed,, 
but who are far from Christ? 

Among the latest discoveries of science are the double 
stars. For thousands of years they have ever been con- 
sidered single stars; but the telescope shows that they are 
composed of two stars, so close to each other, and revolv- 
ing round each other, that they seem to be one. I think I 
have had the privilege of seeing many a double star of 
God; husbands and wives who have lived so close to each 
other for so many years, and who love each other so dear- 
ly, that when the one dies, the other soon passes away. 
Then there are double stars, mothers and daughters; boys 
and boys, girls with girls. Ah, I love to see a double star 
of God, shining with greater power and might than if 
either were shining alone. Ah, how much truth and 
sweetness there is in such a life ! 

Have you ever seen the constellation called Pisce? 
Autralis? You will see a few minor points of light with 
one great light among them, called Fomalhaut. Lonely 
he must be, the only one of his kind in all that portion of 
heaven! As there are double stars of God, so are there 
single stars of God; stars that have loved the Light of 
their life so much, they have never had an earthly mate; 
but they do not complain; they do not regret; for their 



42 The Stars of God. 



mate is not an earthly one, but God himself. That choice 
was a good choice; and the stars of God who like Fomal- 
haut have remained alone that they might serve God and 
his Church better — my beloved, the crown of gold is on 
their forehead. 

All these stars live their lives to themselves without 
thinking that they are examples to millions and millions 
of worlds. Thus is it with us. We are stars of God ; and 
in spite of ourselves we give example to countless hosts; 
we shine, with some light; it is for us to determine witli 
which. Shall it be the red of passion, like Aldebaran? 
The green of envy, like Antares? Shall it be the earthy 
show of Sirius? 

Or, my beloved, shall it be the star of the East that 
told the world of a message of eternal joy? A star 
so beautiful, that of itself it told the hearts of the wise 
men, that God had so loved the world, that He had sent 
it Light and Love? Shall each one of us be stars of the 
East, calling men to God? Shall we be a Theophany? 
Shall we be, as the early Church loved to call it, one of 
the stars of the Holy Lights? 

Yes, we will show forth God's love and beauty to the 
world, will we not, my brothers and sisters ? 

But perhaps some of us think we are not good enough 
to shine? That we have not enough of God's light in us 
to show forth? Ah, my beloved, there it is we are mis- 
taken. 

Please tell me, which are the brightest stars in heaven ? 

Why, of course, the planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and 
above all, the Moon. 

Why, have you never thought of it that the stars that 
try to shine of themselves shine wdth the feeblest light? 
The moon, the brightest of all, slriiie?. — how? All the 
moon does is to let the sun's light be reflected on her. It 
is thus with us. The utmost we can do is to let the Sun of 
Kighteousness shine on us. All we have to do is to stand 
quietly, and we will shine a thousand times more glorious- 



The Stars of God. 43 



Ij than if we tried to shine of our own light. The utmost 
light a man has is only the reflection of God's light on 
him; that is his highest hope. 

All of us then who are all God's living stars can shine, 
if we will only let God's light fall on us. Thus can each 
one of us shine so beautifully that when wise men shall 
see us they shall cry out, We have seen God's star, in the 
East, and we have come to worship Him. 

But the stars, beloved, can teach us still another lesson. 
When the skies at night are clear, the mariner needs not 
to look at his compass, for he knows by the light of God's 
stars, which way to steer for the STorth. But in the 
cloudy nights of doubt and despair, when darkness has 
fallen on our soul, it seems we can no more see God's 
lights and beacons to assure us that God's goodness and 
love is in heaven. Then, indeed may we take comfort; 
the eternal stars of God in the breasts of our fellow-crea- 
tures, are only hidden by clouds : but if we could stand 
on higher ground than we are, if we could stand on the 
tmountain-h eight, we would see tlie stars in all their 
glory; when the clouds have come, then we must rise to 
higher heights, and we shall see the eternal stars, circling 
in their eternal orbits, singing in the harmony of the 
spheres. If clouds then come, up, my brother, on to a 
mountain-height alone with God, and His stars shall shine 
again! 

If we will but watch long enough, the dawn will break : 
the stars will fade, not because they have stopped shining, 
but because a greater light than they has arisen. To 
those who watch, the Sun of Righteousness will arise, and 
the soul is left alone in the fulness of God's light, when 
He has become all in all. Grant Grod the day will come 
when all human things will fade from our sight, when 
we shall be left alone in adoration of God, who is all in 
all in the noonday glory of His eternal light, when we 
f^hall see Him as He i-^, face to face. 



VII. 
THE DAILY BREAD. 

•'Give US this day our daily bread." 

Let us not mistake. It is God who gives us all that 
can be given: not we ourselves, who by our efforts can 
supply our needs. The law of supply and demand, the 
law of the survival of the fittest, the law of equivalents — 
all these laws are only instrumentalities through which 
the Divine Workman, the Di^dne Labourer, fulfils his 
purposes. It is God who works in us both to will and to 
do. God is He from whom all good counsels, all holy de- 
sires, and all just works do proceed. His grace is a free 
gift, not merited. 

All things are Thine, God and Father of us all. Thou 
art all that was, and is and is to come. TTe are helpless, 
weak and needy, sitting wearily by the shore of eternity, 
unable to cross its infinite currents. "We are weary of 
crying, we turn to thee, O Father Divine ! Give us, give 
us our daily bread, that we may live, and not die, that 
we may recover a little our strength before we go hence 
and be no more seen. 

Lapped in luxury from childhood, many of us forget 
that all we have was given to us at birth, and that we 
must leave it behind at death. But to the poor there is 
no need of a reminder that all is a gift of God, when it 
comes when we least expect it, and when we need it most. 
God is not only the Infinite Teacher, the Infinite La- 
bourer, the Infinite Lover ; he is also the Infinite Giver of 
all. 



The Daily Bread. 45 



II. Give us this day our daily bread. 

Give us our daily bread this day. Not yesterday. Not 
to-morrow. This day. We ask Thee not, O Father, to 
give us strength to do the distant duty. We ask Thee to 
help us to-day. This next duty at hand, this little duty 
nearest us, this momentary duty so insignificant, so use- 
less, so utterly indifferent in respect to our future lives, 
so distasteful, so homely, so weary, so full of petty drudg- 
ery ; this next duty at hand, this is the duty tliat is so hard. 
Give us strength to do this little duty. Father of heaven. 
Give us our daily bread to-day; let us know that Thou 
art with us now, and we will face courageously the des- 
perate gloom of to-morrow. We will not fear the darkness 
and the silence of the night, of the midnight terror, if 
Thou, O tender Father, art with us at the hour of dusk. 
Be with us now, let us do the present duty, and we will 
gird our loins to the battle, and trust for the future to 
Thee. We will leave results to Thee; but we will be clean 
in Thy sight to-day, now, at this hour. Clean must our 
hands be to-day, if we desire to accomplish our destiny. 
We can only judge of the future by the present — what- 
ever our destiny be, however loudly it may call to us to 
abandon all and follow Thee, O Father, our hands must 
be clean to-day, for we are responsible alone for our pres- 
ent honesty. O give us our daily bread this day! 

III. Give us this day our daily bread. 

The bread Thou givest us to-day, let it be our bread, 
Father who art in heaven. We are not dogs, we are 
children of the household. Thine own offspring. Hast 
Thou not begotten us? Have we not all one Father? Are 
we not in Thine image, and shall we not grow up into 
Thy likeness? Is it not alone in Thy light that we shall 
?ee light? Is it not in Thy love alone tliat we shall know 
love? Is it not alone in Thy truth that we shall know 
truth? Our destiny calls us over land and sea to those 



40 The Daily Bread. 

mansions above that were our own before the mountains 
were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were 
made. Thou hast so made us we can never rest until we 
be at peace upon Thy breast. Thou thyself are our end, 
our aim, our destiny. Give us our bread, our highest pos- 
sibilities, our most utter perfection, to-day, to-morrow, 
and for evermore. 

Are we not Thy children? Are we only dogs? Yet 
the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's 
table. Even if we be but dogs, returning to our own 
vomit, returning to the mud from which we have been 
just cleansed in a bath of our own tears, knowing not 
where to seek the light, and like dogs dumb, unable to cry 
to Thee from out of the depths of our misery and degra- 
dation, O Lord liear our voice, O let thine ears consider 
well the voice of our complaint. Give us this day the daily 
bread that is ours, from the foundation of the world. 

IV. Give us this day our daily bread. 

Our bread for which we pray to Thee is a daily bread. 
Father in heaven. 

Daily we retire within to seek Thy altar, from which 
the sacramental prayers that arise to Thee are fragrant 
with utter submission to Thy infinite will. Daily we seek 
Thy blessing. If we eat not physical food daily, we die, 
O Lord. How much more, if the food of our souls come 
not daily? Yet the food of our souls comes daily, if we 
will but daily seek it, if we will but daily consecrate our 
earthly elements to the informing power of Thy Divine 
Spirit of Love. Day by day, here a little, there a little, 
line upon line, precept upon precept, thus does the daily 
bread feed our souls. The coral insect spends its whole 
life to build but one single cell; but the daily birth and 
labour of the offspring rear the eternal rock to a height 
where the infinite ocean can but humbly lick the foot of 
the heaven-towering crag. Daily is the divine bread 



The Daily Bread 47 



given to the soul that daily needs it. Daily give us our 
bread, O heavenly Father. 

V. Give us this day our daily bread. 

Bread is made of flour, water, yeast, and salt. Bread 
is subject to the law of gravitation and of conservation of 
energy. It is composed of carbonates, nitrates, phos- 
phates, and water. Beautiful is the fact that prayer for 
this physical nourishment is the petition following that 
desire that God's Y7ill may be done as in heaven so on 
earth. Professor Benedict says: ^^I never mourn over 
any misconception of philosophy or religion more sin- 
cerely than I do over the misconception concerning mat- 
ter. If matter be not itself spirit, it is the dwelling-place 
of spirit, and so far as we know and can infer, the eternal 
dwelh'ng-plaee of spirit. ]Srol only so, the relation between 
matter and spirit in our own persons is one of reciprocal 
iiifhieiice. We are so constituted that our highest intellec- 
tual and emotional life cannot be secured without physi- 
cal nourishment — bread — literal physical bread. And 
yet this indisputable fact has been presented as one of 
degradation. Wholesome, pleasurable digestion has been 
a process for which thousands of professing Christians 
have felt called upon to apologize or to blush. And yet 
these same Christians would be obliged to acknowl- 
edge that the process of physical nourishment was ap- 
pointed by their Lord and Maker, and by him made essen- 
tial, essential to the holiest living. When a saint has vol- 
untarily starved himself to death, what has become of his 
sainthood? . . . To ask aright for daily bread implies 
that we do our utmost to keep ourselves in condition to 
be nourished by the bread. ^Give us this day our daily 
bread' implies that we have so realized, or are striving so 
to realize God's holy Will in our bodies, that the bread 
will produce the nourishment it was designed to pro- 
duce." 



48 The Daily Bread. 



But man needs nourishnient for the mindj as well aa 
for the bodv. He needs knowledge and truth. To study, 
to read, to investigate, to memorize, to solve mathemati- 
cal and metaphysical problems, to write prose and poetry, 
to criticise rightly, to study philology, geology, chemis- 
try, botany, physiology, biology, and anatomy — all these 
are duties as real as eating bread. The mind must be nou- 
rished. Many men do not study because they are too 
busy labouring for bread and home : how many women 
are there who dwell protected at home, doing fancy-work 
and playing cards to kill time. How much better if they 
studied a little, and did not stultify themselves and insult 
their Father in heaven when they pray, "Give us this day 
our mental bread.'' 

Knowledge is not all. Truth is more. What is the use 
of assembling daily in Church professing to believe the 
truth, to follow the truth, and to seek the truth, when we 
really do not give ourselves the least trouble to find out 
what tlie truth is^ AVhen we are led in our likes and 
dislikes by prejudice, and refuse to consider difficulties 
and problems on their own merits, whatsoever others may 
have said on the subject? Truth is mighty, and will pre- 
vail. There is nothing to fear in seeking truth; the 
sooner we are rid of the false, the better I 

Bread physical, is good. Bread mental is better: but 
bread spiritual is best. TVTiat is the food of the spirit? 
Xothing, if not love. God is love; and since our souls 
hunger after God, they hunger after love. Since noth- 
ing can satisfy the desires of our souls but God, nothing 
can satisfy the desires and needs of the spirit but love. 
There alone is eternal joy, eternal peace, eternal satisfac- 
tion. There is eternal youth, and eternal life. Learn to 
love, and you will learn to be divine. He who builds the 
house labours but in vain imless Love be watching, de- 
fendino; from the enemies of darkness. He who would 



The Daily Bread. 49 



never hunger nor thirst again must love, and love love. 
Then will he become transfigured, on the Mount of 
Vision. 

And to him who seeks the Kingdom of heaven shall 
all things be added. First the kingdom, then all else. 
The purpose of life is a trial, a purification. The dear 
Father will give to each all he needs in order to 
accomplish the victory over self. How foolish to cease 
struggling after the end of life, in order to worry anxious- 
ly over the means? Seek not the bread that perishes, but 
the true bread from heaven, eternal, for evermore. 

GIVE US this day our daily bread. 

Give us THIS DAY our daily bread. 

Give us this day OUR daily bread. 

Give us this day our DAILY bread. 

Give us this day our daily BREAD. 

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteouB- 
ness, for they shall be filled. Amen. 



VIII. 
THE HOUSE BUILT UPON A EOCK. 

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and de- 
ath then% I will ^iken him unto a wise man which built his house 
upon a rocK: . . . and it fell not, because it was founded on 
a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and 
doeth them, not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built 
his house upon the sand: . . . and it fell, and great was the 
fall oi it." — S. Matt, vii: 24-27. 

It is noticeable hovr in all the great Parables and 
Teachings of religions literature^ and especially those of 
Jesns, we may always discern two distinct epochs, or pe- 
riods. First comes the period of preparation, of oppor- 
tunity ; then comes the period of stress, or triah when that 
which has deyeloped during the first period is tested, 
weighed in the balances, judged. 

The reason of this is that Parables and Teachings are 
yaluable only in the measure of the fidelity with which 
they represent life. And life is after all nothing but this, 
a preparation, and a test. First comes the childhood of 
preparation — next the manhood of trial of the stuff pre- 
pared in childhood. So is life distinctiye of men, into 
those who are successful, and those who are not success- 
ful. There is the physical and mental preparation for 
eyery year and day, in yacations, and nightly rest. Then 
comes the time of trial during the season of labour — and 
that then tells whether the preparation was sufficient and 
efficient. 

There is no parable more yital, or more striking than 
that short similitude of the house founded on the rock, or 
on sand. 




The House Built Upon a Rock. 51 

This luminous similitude suggests so many thoughts 
that it is hardly possible to do uiotp than to choose from 
them three; firstly, that each man builds his house; sec- 
ondly, that it is not as important what the house be as the 
foundation on which it is built. Lastly, we are reminded^ 
once more that there will come the time of trial, when 
the foundations of all houses shall be tested, and judged. 

I. In the first place, there is no doubt but that each 
man builds his own house. 

First, it is important to remember that the house of our 
life is only one house. It is composed of all our natural 
faculties, the associations of our childhood, our education 
at home and abroad. In it we must dwell all our life, to 
all eternity. At first it is plastic, and may easily be mod- 
elled at will ; but after a certain period, there comes the 
time when it can no more be altered. It is therefore a 
very serious matter that we should early build it so that 
we may all our life rejoice to dwell in it. 

Secondly, at first we have the power to choose what the- 
plan of the house shall be, how rounded, how harmonious. 
When however the structure has once been begun, what- 
ever additions we may make to the original plan will 
always remain additions, will always remain visible ex- 
crescences. The house will never be harmonious and 
rounded. It is therefore advisable when the plan of 
life is being laid, to allow proportionate space for all the 
rooms that will be needed. If this be not done the house 
will ever appear irregular, and the man will be called a 
crank — worse than this — he will not only be called a 
crank, but will be one. 

Thirdly, there should be in the house of our life rooms 
assigned to all departments of life ; one to literature, one 
to music, one to drawing and painting, one to science, one 
to exercise, and one also for recreation. There should 
be a bedroom, where we may take rest, full, deep rest. 



52 The House Built Upon a Rock. 

Also a dining-room, where all the needs of the body may- 
have full attention. But above all else, there should be in 
the house of oar life, yea, in the very centre of it, a 
chapel, whither the soul may repair at any and all times 
to meet its God face to face. Without this chapel 
all rooms are useless; with it, all rooms are for the first 
time, valuable. 

Last, but not least, the house should be provided with 
a beautiful reception-room, where the soul may meet 
other souls in social intercourse. It never was good for 
any soul to remain alone, without the unselfish prayers 
and suggestions of fellow-souls. 

Fourthly, our house should be provided with large 
roomy windows through which the sunshine may bathe 
every nook and cranny of every room. Without sunshine, 
every room will grow musty and breed sickness. Thus it 
is in our life. Every department of our human activity 
should have large windows through which the sunlight of 
God's love may penetrate. Otherwise, believe me, that 
department of our life will grow musty and sickly. 

Fifthly, it is expedient for us to look to the roof of our 
house. You know that if any leak occurs in the roof, the 
moisture will penetrate inside, and not only breed dis- 
ease, but cause the timbers to rot. It is true that for many 
years after the process of rotting has begun, the house 
still presents an imposing appearance. Yet the day will 
come when suddenly the whole building wdll crumble to 
the ground. The roof of the house of our life is unselfish- 
ness. The moment the slightest leak occurs, the mois- 
ture of passion and laziness makes the whole building full 
of sickness and sin. AVorse than this happens, however. 
The timbers of our life which support our whole indivi- 
duality rot away imnoticed; and though the fall be long 
delayed, it must come some time, as surely as death. 



The House Built Upon a Rock. 55, 

Sixthly, it is important that we should make the inside 
of our house beautiful, whatever the outside be. It is a 
great temptation to spend all our efforts in beautifying 
the outside of the house which every one sees, at the costs 
of the inside, which alone God and our own soul know* 
Yet, the older we grow, the more we live in our house; 
the less opportunity have we to even notice its external 
appearance. How useless it will be in old age to think of 
the beautiful exterior while we are condemned to live in 
a gloomy and unadorned cell. Then we will have plenty 
time to repent at leisure. 

Oh, build it beautiful, build it strong, build it spiritual, 
this house of yours, young men, and young women ! 

II. But, after all, the building of the house of life is 
not so important as the selection of the foundation on 
which it is built. As long as the foundation is solid, the 
house will stand fast whether its style of architecture be 
Byzantine, Romanesque, Renaissance, or Gothic. But 
however beautiful or poor the house is, as long as the 
foundation is uncertain, the house must fall. 

The reason why the question of what foundation we 
will choose is so important is that there is more indivi- 
duality shown in the selection of the foundation, than 
even in the building of the house. Firstly, We can skimp 
work on the foundation so much more unnoticed than on 
the house itself. Everybody sees the outside walls; no- 
body sees the solid masonry below the level of the road. 
We can save time, labour and material on the foundation 
without anybody being the wiser for it. We alone and 
God will know it; and if we save work on the unseen 
foundations to make a greater show outside we will ap- 
pear to be doubly solid to those who never look inside a 
house of life. Secondly, it is the aggravating condition 
of life that foundations of rock cannot be found every- 
where. Only where the rock is can we build on it. On 



54 The House Built Upon a Rock. 



the contrary, soft bricks and sand can be found anywhere, 
carried anywhere we please, and erected into any shape 
we please. Therefore if we are determined to found our 
liouse on our own will, and not on the will of God, it will 
be very much easier for all concerned to build it out of 
soft and light bricks. 

If then we choose our foundation right, we have done 
so by overcoming a far greater temptation than we met in 
selecting the plan of the house; and therefore, we are so 
much the more to be praised. 

But you will ask, What is the rock on which we should 
build our foundations? I answer, the Will of God, physi- 
cal, mental, and spiritual. For if we determined to make 
the foundations of our proposed residence defy the law of 
gravitation, the result would not be so much the worse 
for the law of gravitation, but so much worse for us. 
Likewise with the spiritual precepts of God. They are 
not arbitrary commands given by God for the fun of see- 
ing whether we will ol)ey them or not. They are merely 
statements of the spiritual laws of the Universe; to 
which, if we will conform, we will continue to exist; to 
Vv^hich if we will not conform, it will simply be so much 
the worse for us. 

Beloved, let the foundations of the houses of our life 
l^e built on the only true and lasting foundation: truth, 
fact, the Will of God, as expressed in all laws, known 
and unknown, physical, mental and spiritual. And the 
laws of the spiritual Universe are well known: purity, 
unselfishness, and truth. 

III. We have but a moment to consider the last and 
most important part of our subject. This is the fact that 
God tests or judges our spiritual house and its founda- 
tion, sooner or later, in one way or another. 

The rain descends, the floods come, and the winds of 
God blow. These are poverty, pain, sorrow and death. 



The House Built Upon a Rock. 55 

What is stronger than poverty? What is stronger than 
pain? What is stronger than sorrow? What is stronger 
than death ? This it behooves us to find out for ourselves. 
What that we have now, that we can attain now, is 
stronger than all these? 

I know of nothing if it be not purity, unselfishness, or 
truth. They are the only things in heaven and earth 
which we can hope to carry with us through it all; and 
these were, as we saw, the expression of God's Will in 
the spiritual realm — the rock on which the house of life 
must be founded, if it would withstand the rains, the 
floods, and the winds. 

Grant God that when the hour of trial has come to us, 
we may be refined as the fire in the furnace of the mercy 
of God, and that through all the poverty, pain, suffering 
and death, the flame of our life may burn steadily and 
surely, until it be reunited for ever to the fire of the 
Breath of God. 



IX. 
THE PATIENCE OF GOD. 

''They seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had 
to her." — Gen. xxix: 20, 25-27. 

There are perhaps no more solemn times in the life of 
man than those seasons when he has entered into a new 
field of labour. All the associations which shall form the 
conditions among which his life is to be carried on are 
still plastic and unformed. To a great extent he can make 
them what he desires. Thus is he the architect of his 
fortunes — his destiny lies in his hands. 

Jacob had arrived in Syria, and had made a good im- 
pression, since both of Laban's daughters were willing to 
look forward to becoming his wives. What shall he do 
now? He must work, faithfully and honestly. For the 
present, his past crimes will not trouble him, and he has 
a season of rest in which he can grow strong enough to 
live down his past life, when he shall return to face the 
consequences of his crimes. 

But work was not irksome to him. He loved Rachel, 
and the days he spent working by her side were days of 
the greatest happiness. They seemed so short, and so 
pleasant that he thought of nothing more. And they 
seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her. 
Work by her side was but an opportunity of knowing 
her better, for according to the Bible narrative, the 
daughters of Laban though rich seem to have busied 
themselves with work. How short must those seven hap- 
py years have seemed to Jacob. 



The Patience of God. 57 

And this is always the case. We always feel that the 
days we enjoy are short. How quickly the sun sets when 
the occupation has been pleasant some summer afternoon! 
How dull the day seems when the task is hard. To the 
spinner in the factory the slow hours barely creep along; 
to the onlooker in the theatre the minutes fly unnoticed. 
Alas, there is no sadder comment on the dimness of spirit- 
ual vision than the complaint that the prayers we offer to 
God are too long. We do not grudge an hour to the poli- 
tical speaker, to the lecturer, to the teacher, to the law- 
yer; but to the preacher, twenty minutes is the dead line 
which he crosses only at his peril. The preacher is looked 
upon at times by some, perhaps, as a necessary tribulation 
of the flesh incident to the fulfilment of duty in going to- 
Church. We read in Buckle's History of Civilization 
that the Covenanters of Scotland thought five hours not 
too long for a service, at times. Whose fault is this fact 
of weariness in the service of God? It is the fault of us 
all, ministers as well as people; if we could only love 
Rachel a little more, the seven years would seem shorter. 
. . . How many of us would as lightheartedly devote 
an afternoon or evening a week to the communion with 
God as to some euchre club, or sociable gathering, or 
party? 

If we loved Rachel, we would not grudge to devote to 
her even seven years; seven years would not seem long. 
Let us learn to love God. 

II. Yet does it not seem risky to serve seven years for 
Rachel, when we shall, like Jacob, be disappointed, and 
receive Leah instead? Is not this deceit on the part of 
Laban? Must always the natural come before the spirit- 
ual? When we cry to God to come closer to Him, to be- 
come spiritual, is it deceit in Him to give us the natural 
instead? No; it is a law of the Universe that first is 
that which is natural, then that which is spiritual, as S. 



58 The Patience of God. 

Paul said so well. First we must serve for Leah; and if 
we fulfil another week of years, then shall we receive 
Rachel too. 

The secret of it is that God abides in eternity, and that 
we only vegetate in a span of life. We cry for righteous- 
ness, we seek holiness, we demand from God purity; we 
would be changed into His image by magic; we would 
leave behind us the consequences of our sins — and God 
promises indeed that we shall be freed from them; but 
not to-morrow, or next day. Fii^st must we fulfil that 
ivhich is natural, and then, indeed, that which is spiritual. 

It is a law of universal life that the natural should pre- 
cede the spiritual. First came Hagar, w^itli the natural 
Ishmael; second came Sarah, with the spiritual Isaac. 
Take even the example of our blessed Lord. If God came 
to this world, would you not think that He would come to 
it immediately in power and majesty? Would He not be- 
gin His work immediately among the Sons of Men? Why 
waste so much time on earth before giving the light to 
man? Because first is that which is natural, and then 
that which is spiritual. Before the glorious ministry of 
three years, must come the childhood in Bethlehem, the 
long manhood of thirty years at Xazareth. Then came 
that which is spii-itual. 

And it is good, that it should be so. Shelley says that 
there is a language known only to those who die; and 
he is right. Only those who have been sick, who have 
lain at the door of death, who have rejoiced and suffered 
and wept, and called down blessings on their fellow- 
creatures, can hope to undei^tand the full dignity and 
destiny of hum.anity. Was it not for that the Christ came, 
that He might be tried and tempted in all points as we, 
that He might weep at the grave of Lazarus, that He 
might bless the little children that were brought to Him? 

And yet, Jesus was God. 



The Patience of God. 59 

It is for tliis reason that a late writer has said that even 
angels cannot love as we can. For angels can only love 
from the very loveliness of their being, loving all souls 
equally, unindividually. But we, how can we help being 
bound to all eternity to those souls who have lived with 
us, with whom we have in moments of overzealousness 
quarrelled, and with whom we have made it up again, 
sealing the bond with the tears of peace? To those souls 
who have given us food when we were hungry babies, to 
those souls whose sorrows and wounds we have healed 
v/hile they were still palpitating in the flesh; to those 
souls to whom a common love of God has united us for- 
ever? Perhaps that writer is right. 

III. But though all this be true, it is hard, sometimes. 
God is so infinitely patient, and His long-suffering is so 
much more infinite than ours. When we have plans, we 
stake the existence of our souls on their accomplishment 
immediately — but God who sees where we are blind 
knows that in His infinite patience it shall be all out- 
wrought. God is so patient, because He knows so much. 

This divine patience is the characteristic of all truly 
great lives. To Abraham were the promises made, and 
in faith in them he left his kindred and his home, and 
he died before he saw them realized. Ten generations 
rose and fell before the promises were fulfilled; but the 
hope of Israel was its greatness. It is not always neces- 
sary that God's promises should be fulfilled during our 
life-time; God will find some way of answering our 
prayers, even if we pass away from this little life before 
tlie answer comes. A friend of mine said tliat he thought 
Emerson had been the only man he had ever known who 
seemed to believe in eternity — for he never hurried; he 
knew that in God's wise providence there was a place for 
every good deed, and in God's eternity, there is no need to 
Lurrv or hasten. 



6o The Patience of God. 

But it is in the nature of man to look for fulfilment 
immediately. It was thus in the life of Jesus. At the 
age of twelve when He saw the temple for the first time, 
His heart swelled within Him, and He knew He must be 
about His Father's business. So interested was He in it 
that He forgot everything else, and was three days alone 
in the temple. But it was not to be. He must wait yet; the 
hour was not yet come. Submissively, sweetly. He fol- 
lowed Mary to Nazareth, and stayed by her side for eigh- 
teen years more. Then the time came ; then He was bap- 
tized; then He was ready, rounded, to do the perfect 
work ; and in the completeness of His nature He did His 
Father's Will. 

We have another instance, if we may trust many Com- 
mentators, in Isaiah. Young Isaiah was jealous for the 
Lord; the prophetic spirit within him rose up and made 
him cry in the by-ways of Israel to recall them to their 
God. And he prophesied, probably the first thirty-nine 
chapters of his prophecy. Evidently then the Lord drew 
him into the desert alone, made him wait for many years 
of seeming waste and helplessness — but the time came 
that the young Isaiah's harsh and thin voice became mel- 
lowed by the glories of the Lord, and deepened by his 
deeper vision; and he opened his mouth and cried. Com- 
fort ye, comfort ye my people — until the whole world 
should listen for all ages to the unique words of his 
prophecy. The Lord's patience was infinitely greater 
than Isaiah's: but in the fulness of time the spiritual glory 
descended and brooded over Isaiah's forehead. 

There are very few souls who have not in their heart 
of hearts a deep longing after some plan, some ideal, some 
hope which they seek to realize in their lives — but it 
would seem as if God would not hear their prayers, and 
would not fulfil their aspirations. But in the fulness of 
time every soul shall accomplish its ideal; every heart's 



The Patience of God. 6i 

desire shall be fulfilled, every darkness shall be made 
light. In His infinite patience, God will bring it to pass; 
Leah may be forced on us, but some day Rachel herself 
in all her maiden loveliness shall be ours; all that we can 
do is to watch, and wait, praying, loving and purifying 
ourselves that when the fulness of time shall arrive we 
may stand up in the whole dignity of manhood to the 
greatness of our divinely appointed destiny. 

How often Jacob must have thought of the infinite pa- 
tience of God while he was serving for Rachel the second 
week of years, looking in the inscrutable blue of the sky, 
that seems to be such a beautiful parable of the long-suf- 
fering and tenderness of God, brooding over us, so beau- 
tiful, so clear, so eternal, filling us with peace and calm. 
And though we cannot pasture flocks like Jacob and 
spend days in its contemplation, we may lift our heai-ts to 
that eternal protecting Love that never falters in Its ten- 
derness, though It be so wisely patient in all the anxious 
desires of our life. And in Its contemplation, our lives 
will grow calmer and more peaceful, ever more ready to 
behold with our own eyes the coming of that hour when 
the heavenly Rachel shall be ours, and we shall have ac- 
complished the noblest aspirations of our soul. 

Let us pray that God will make us more submissive to 
His will, that we may more and more und©a:Btand the ten- 
derness and easily-entreatedness of His omniscient pa- 
tience; and in contemplation of that, we will grow pa- 
tient ourselves. 

IV. But let us not think that God delays our hopes be- 
cause He desires to disappoint us, to sadden us. No : He 
is patient only because He knows that some day we shall 
be more iiarmonious, more perfect than we are to-day. 
]!^one of us will remain at the same point at wliich we 
are — we shall change, all of us. Our loving Father 



62 The Patience of God. 

above makes us wait because He knows that some day we 
shall be so much closer to Him that we shall be able to 
derive from the opportunities we seek to-day more than 
we could while we are still, as Tennyson says, slight, and 
unformed. He waits, because He knows that we are not 
yet fully developed; because we are not yet all that v^e 
shall be some day. Our development must not be stopped 
until we have attained our full stature, until we have be- 
come purified by the peaceful snows of age. He w^aits out 
of tenderness. Some day our jarring incompleteness and 
inharmoniousness shall be lost in the harmony of God; 
our dimness, in His light; our weariness, in the lightning 
of His fiery love. Then His patience shall have borne 
its fruit, the times shall have been fulfilled, and when 
the hour has come, we will go forth conquering and to 
conquer until when the worlds have been enlightened 
with His light, God shall be all in all. 



X. 

THE MIKACLE OF FEEDING. 

''So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the 
broken meat that was left seven ibasketis." — ^S. Mark viii: i-8. 

The beautiful story never grows old. A few loaves, a 
few fishes, and seven baskets are the result ! In what 
good humour, how surprised^ must have been the disci- 
ples ! Surely their conception of the Master must have 
risen a hundredfold, seeing traces of his wonderful power 
in the small, practical details of regular life which seemed 
so commonplace. Henceforth they must have listened 
more humbly to His teachings, must have uncovered 
their heads in holier awe. 

We can feel with and for them, for we too, just at the 
beginning of a New Year, feel as surprised, as pleased, 
as awed, as the disciples did by the shore of the Galilean 
Lake. Christmas just passed, with its divine spiritual 
and temporal blessings of all kinds. We have looked in- 
to each others' faces on New Year's day, and have wished 
each other a fortunate ISTew Year. With hope and expec- 
tation we do each task more perfectly, we attack each 
new sphere of usefulness with a more determined pur- 
pose. 

But this is not all. We can feel for and with the dis- 
ciples by the Galilean Lake because, unconsciously, we 
have been doing the same thing as they, actually 
gathering seven basketfuls of remnants of what Avas over 
and above the loaves and fishes we had in our hands. 



64 The Miracle of Feeding. 

You ask, how is this? I answer: Last year we sowed 
deeds, actions, thoughts, feelings, hopes, — which seemed 
so trifling as to be unnoticed and to disappear as soon as 
sown — but when we gathered the remnants on New 
Year's day, we reaped not such small things as loaves and 
fishes, but seven great, huge basketfuls of character! At 
the end of the year we expected to find nothing more than 
the small daily deeds and thoughts, and lo, we find, on 
gathering them, seven basketfuls of habits, increased 
aptitude, increased love of duty, increased devotion to 
God, with a crown of glory, of conquest in each basket. 
And we find, we are one year closer to God. 

Do you doubt me when I say that we have found 
seven baskets of remnants? Listen. First we have gath- 
ered a whole basketful of purity; second, of unselfish- 
ness; third, of truth; fourth, of humility; fifth, of en- 
durance; sixth, of resignation; and last, of thoughtful- 
ness. 

The first basket is a basket full of purity. The pride of 
the eyes, and the lust of the heart have grown distasteful 
to us. The pleasures of the world have palled on us. It 
is true that the world is as merry as ever ; but our places 
in it are filled by others. Sooner or later each must drop 
out of society and its frivolous inanities; others must take 
our places, and we be forgotten, in the mad whirl and 
rush of pleasure. Slowly but surely our heart turns from 
the gaiety and laughter of the world. Slowly, but surely, 
the silent spirit-realm closes in around us, and we pass 
through the places that knew us before, as strangers, aa 
curious sight-seers. Of the remnants, we have filled the 
first basket with purity, and in it is the crown of self-con- 
trol. ^^To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.'^ 

The second basket is a basket full of unselfishness. 
Long ago, when we were young, w^e elbowed our way to 
the front; but a mistake or two at the start, then a few 
graver ones in times of thoughtlessness, and we were out 



The Miracle of Feeding. 65 

of the line of promotion. Then we f onnd siiecess was not ' 
all. With age, we grew gentler, tenderer, and kinder; 
and before we knew it, there were enough remnants of 
unselfishness, first to those we loved, secondly to all the 
world, to fill the second basket crammed full, leaving only 
room enough to put on it the crown of love. ^^To him 
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, 
and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new 
name written, which no man knoweth saving he that re- 
ceiveth it." 

The third basket is a basket full of sincerity. iSTothing is 
taught more thoroughly by the vicissitudes of this world, 
than that nothing pays in the end, but absolute sincerity. 
The man who values his soul at a few stolen goods, finds 
out sooner or later that he has not escaped the eye of God, 
and has humiliated himself. Of course, sincerity need 
not mean foolish divulging of your inner life to all in 
afternoon tea gossip. But sincerity towards God, towards 
our soul, at the cost of death, of dishonour, of adversity 
... is cheap. Only he who is true to himself, will 
ever be true to everything in his life that is noble and di- 
vine. So we pack into the full basket the crown of sin- 
cerity. . . . ^Tor he that overcometh, and keepeth my 
words unto the end, to him will I give power over the na- 
tions: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron . . . and 
I will give him the morning star.'' 

The fourth basket is shaken down, pressed, and run- 
ning over with humility. The only man who can aftoi'd 
to be conceited is the man who is not fortunate enough to 
be acquainted with anything better than himself; and, 
God knows, there is need of going but a little distance to 
find something better than we ourselves are. Life is so 
filfinitely mysterious, God is so infinitely beautiful and 
wonderful, that he who knows either or both becomes the 
humbler as he is wiser. Conceit is ignorance; and knosvl- 
edge and wisdom can be measured by humility. Make 



66 The Miracle of Feeding. 

place in tlie fourth basket of remnants for the crown of 
humility. ^Tle tliat overcometh, the same shall be 
clotliecl in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name 
out of the book of lif e, but I will confess his name before 
my Father, and before His angels." 

The next basket of remnants is the fifth. Endurance 
fills it to the brim. Youth, and its fulness of opportuni- 
ties permits prodigality; but the older man, who has 
only a few opportunities this side of the grave left him, 
husbands his strength, vrorks in earnest. Those who have 
been in Bochim are patient, enduring, kind. Flow bright- 
ly the be jeweled crown of endurance shines, resting on 
the heaped remnants. ^^Him that overcometh will I 
make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go 
no more out : and I will write upon him the name of my 
God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the 
new Jerusalem, which cometh. down out of heaven from 
my God, and I will write upon him a new name." 

The sixth basket is full of resignation to the blessed 
Will of God. Many the mistakes we make, when we 
choose our own paths, and do not follow duty. Follow 
destiny, my beloved, obey the advice of your tender 
Father, and you will never repent having listened to the 
still small voice of conscience, which whosoever follows, 
receives the crown of peace. ^^He that overcometh shall 
not be hurt of the second death." 

Only one basket more, the seventh. These remnants 
of our last year's life, have taught us to remember death. 
Xot indeed like the Egyptian at whose banquet a slave 
uttered the empty reminder of mortality; but that ever- 
living remembrance that some day we must leave behind 
us all the world prizes, and stand naked before the judg- 
ment-seat of God. Remember Death. Remember those 
among us, of this congregation, who during this last year 
have passed from among us, to where beyond these voices 
there is peace. Remember the death of our parents, and 



The Miracle of Feeding. 67 

relatives, and remember how fleeting all associations are. 
Remember that the time is short, that the day of grace 
is passing, and that it befits us to labour not for the meat 
that perishes, not for the clothes and the food that we 
must leave behind, but for the eternal life beyond, where 
we will be ranked not according to wealth, but according 
to holiness, and righteousness. Remember death; soon, 
too soon, days and moments quickly flying, lead us to the 
grave; and then — then, after death the judgment. ^^To- 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my 
Father in his throne.'' 

So, as we sowed loaves and fishes of daily duties, we 
have reaped and gathered as remnants seven great bas- 
ketfuls of character, a day's march nearer home. A bas- 
ket each of purity, of unselfishness, of sincerity, of hu- 
mility, of endurance, of resignation, of remembrance of 
Death. Is not this a miracle, out of a few loaves and 
fishes of daily deeds, seven huge baskets full of character ?" 
And if this be a miracle, shall we not do as the children 
of Galilee did that afternoon by the Galilean Lake ? Shall 
we not call the Christ within, our King? Shall we not 
loyally offer Him our hearts for this beautiful New Year 
that lies untrodden, virgin, before us? Shall w^e not call 
Him our King, shall we not beseech Him with tears not 
to withdraw Himself from us? Shall we not hold the 
hem of His garment, His royal robe, from Winter to* 
Spring, from Spring to Summer, from Summer to Au- 
tumn, from Autumn to Christmas again? Surely it is 
well to be near such a King, surely we may ascribe to the 
great Feeder and Shepherd of souls, who will multiply 
our weary duties into the virtues that shall make us over- 
come, who will use Hjs power to give us of remnants only 
seven baskets filled with seven crowns; surely we may 
ascribe to the great Divine within, all love, all light, and 
all peace, now and forever more. Amen ! 



XL 

SILENCE. 

There is a time to keep silence, and there is a time to speak." 
— Eccl. iii: 7. 

Many are the books that tell of the words of Jesus, 
.since the time that Matthew wrote in Hebrew the sayings 
of the Master. Stier has written a library on this sub- 
ject. But who has written of the silences of Jesus? Did 
He not remain still while the Jews accused the woman 
i;aken in adultery? Was He not still when Pilate urged 
Him to defend Himself? "Was He not still on the cross? 
Had He not been still during the long nights spent in 
prayer on the solitary mountains in Galilee? What won- 
derfully expressive seasons of silence those were. Words 
would have been useless, needless, impertinent; silence 
was greater, deeper, more divine. 

There are times to speak, and times to keep silent. Not 
that there is anything wrong, of itself, in speaking or re- 
maining silent. Jesus did both. But speaking or remain- 
ing silent is reprehensible when words are spoken, or the 
tongue is still at the wrong time. Oh, how often we re- 
gret for a whole lifetime not to have spoken some word 
when it was on our lips, and the occasion passed away for 
ever; when the mother whose forgiveness had not been 
asked dies suddenly; when the child we have hurt by a 
thoughtless word is taken away from our life by some 
unforeseen occurrence! But the divine power of the 
words and the silences of Jesus was that they always oc- 
curred at the right time; He spoke the word of love to 



Silence. 69^ 

the rich young man, He was silent before the accusers of 
the woman taken in adultery. 

The trouble and the sorrow of our daily life does not 
come from talking or remaining silent; it comes from the 
forgetting of the times to keep silence, and the times to 
speak. Judgment is required, to do the right thing at 
the right time ; and if this be done, the whole of our lives 
will be harmonious and rounded. It is useless to curse 
our tongues, or to heap maledictions on ourselves be- 
cause we cannot speak; judgment, wisdom, common- 
sense are required to fulfil all righteousness. 

There are four aphorisms worth remembering. 

I. Those who talk do not know: and those who know^ 
do not talk. 

The more learned a man becomes, the more does he 
realize how much he still ignores; the more humble does 
he grow; the more valuable are his words, the fewer they 
become. The more a man knows, the more mysterious 
does the world seem; the more marvellous each clod of 
clay, each shining star in heaven. The more wonderful 
the world, the more reverent and awed is he; the less has 
he the power to say. 

The more he knows, the more gentle, kind-hearted and 
pitiful does he become. God is so charitable to the fallen 
sinner, only because He knows his weakness, the anguish 
of his repentance, and the weariness of his long repay- 
ment. When the woman caught in adultery was brought 
before Jesus, He was silent; and when all had gone, 
He said to her, Go, and sin no more. She had punished 
herself more than any other person living could. 

Again, the man who has an opinion ready on every 
subject, who knows he is right and everybody else wrong, 
who is always saying something whether there be sense 
in it or no, who is continually jabbering — that man 



y3 Silence. 

•confesses in so doing that he knows nothing; for he 
must know but little to be able to set all his knowledge 
in order in one moment. Think if you can of the men 
-of your jDast acquaintance who knew most ; you will find 
that they were the most silent. 

That is the reason God is so silent in our lives, even 
iit times when we are in distress, w^hen our sorrow has 
beclouded our wisdom. AYe ignore and talk; God 
knows and is still. 

11. The second aphorism is as follows: ^^Those who 
talk have no strength of will; those whose will is strong 
do not talk." 

The experience of us all warns us that as soon as we 
tell somebody else of some decision we have taken, we 
feel it ebb away from us, or change immediately. There 
is no surer way of dimming spiritual vision and weaken- 
ing determinations that have only been arrived at by 
tears and anguish, than to talk abuut rliem. 

Who does not know that the strong man is the silent 
man, who goes about his businer^s with only a few words? 

Who does not know that wl^en a man is being tor- 
tured, at the beginning of the trial, while he is yet 
strong in wdll, he is silent, and none can draw a groan 
or a word from his lips ? Do you not know that as soon 
as the torture is beginning to tell on him, that he begins 
to rave, and groan, and curse in his anguish? Do you 
not know that as soon as his will is broken he will talk like 
a windmill, will babble like a child or an idiot ? 

Do you not know that if a man in his sober state 
is as silent as the grave, as soon as liquor begins to unman 
him, he jabbers and gives away all his secrets? 

Who does not know that when a man rises in the 
morning he says but little at the breakfast table, but 
when he returns from his work at night, he is exceedingly 
loquacious? AYhy is this? Simply because in the morn- 



Silence. 71 

ing lie is strong, ready for work; at night, when he has 
worked, and is weary, and has lost his strength of will ; 
then, he talks. 

Who does not know that talking fast is not a sign of 
-culture and power, but of weakness? Consider the races 
that talk fastest, and compare them with those which talk 
slowest, and you will notice a great difference. Go tij 
the zoological garden, and hear how fast the monkeys 
<5hatter; go to the street, and hear how endless is the jab- 
ber of the common Italian. Then go into the lecture- 
room, the court-house, the counting-house, and you will 
hear slow, deliberate, distinct, wise enunciation and for- 
mulation of words. 

Do you not know by your experience that among the 
men you meet those who are freest in their words, who 
are most obliging and accommodating, who are urbane, 
over-polite, are really the least manly men, whose will 
is like a feather, whose determination is like water? 
Are not the most unreliable men sometimes those who 
will talk loudest and longest about God, His angels, men, 
and the Universe? Why is it that the Latin races, so 
brilliant in their conversation, so endowed with genius, 
so tenderly expressive in politeness and oratory, are 
those whose plans are never carried out, whose public 
opinion is turned in a moment from one extreme to the 
other? 

Why is all this so? Simply because those who talk 
have no strength of will, and those whose will is strong 
do not speak. 

That is the reason why God is silent. His will is 
strong and beyond all expression that, in the shape of 
natural laws of physical, psychical and spiritual realms 
it is ever being fulfilled without noise, without herald- 
ing, without warning, without failure. Let us learn 
a lesson of Will from the silence of God and His angels. 



y2 Silence. 

III. But this is not all. The third aphorism tella 
us that those who talk do not act, and those who act do 
not talk. 

No man can do two things at the same time. Either 
he will talk, or he will work. If you go to a factory or 
to a school where work is going on, you will find that 
silence reigns there ; but as soon as you hear a babble of 
voices you know that recess for luncheon has just begun. 
Words are useless except as signs of deeds, present, 
past or future; but when signs only are dealt with, 
then the man becomes, unconsciously a hypocrite — for 
what else is the man who promises but never performs? 
As a rule, you will find that it is possible to gauge a 
man's power of solid honest work by his power of re- 
maining silent for a long while. Serious men and 
women who are under heavy responsibilities speak little, 
like the gripman or motorman, the railroad switchman, 
the ship's pilot, the engineer, and the surgeon perform- 
ing a dangerous operation. Who is always speaking? 
The society man or woman who attends teas, receptions 
and parties; who is talking the whole time and does 
not remember five minutes after what was said. 

History proves this, too. Cicero, Demosthenes, were 
the great orators of all times; but they always veered in 
their opinions towards the fat salaries of the majority; 
and when the time to die came, the venerable Cicero, who 
had written the affecting Treatise on Old Age, fled like 
a coward, and cried like a school-girl. Where was De- 
mosthenes when Philip came to Athens w^ith his legions? 
Alas, some clergymen and some laymen do too much 
talking and too little work. 

This is the reason why God, His angels, and His people 
are always silent. God is working every moment; He 
has no time to be talking all the while; and this is the 
reason why often we think He has become dumb; where- 



Silence. 73 

as, if we looked around us, we would see Him working all 
the time in tlie Universe, from tke worm up to the star^ 
from the grass up to man. Let us Igarn a lesson of ac^ 
tion from the silence of our Father and our God! 

IV. The last aphorism is that those who talk do not 
feel, and those who feel do not talk. 

Do you not know how it eases the feelings of the sin- 
ner, of the repentant sinner, to go to confession? How it 
calms the tears of the heart-broken child to lay his head 
on the breast of his mother, and tell her of his shame and 
sorrow? How the man who is always writing poetry 
never accomplishes any practical good; how the man who- 
boasts of his affection for his family is usually stern and. 
cold to them? 

This is the reason why God is so silent; He loves us^ 
with a love that is so deep it is beyond all language, all 
expression, all sensible assurance; why the angels are ever 
still and calm when they bring us light from above. Do 
you not know that a man who loves his wife rightly is al- 
ways stillest when near her, that a mother fondling her 
new-born infant has tears, but no words? Let us learn a 
lesson of feeling from the silence of God. 

Mrs. Browning beautifully says : 

"We'll be calm, 
And know that, wihen indeed our Joves come do^v^l 
We all turn stiller than we have ever been." 

From all this we may learn three practical lessons. 

First. In your conversation always speak as well and 
as distinctly and as beautifully as you can. Words ought 
to be few and precious. 

Second. Remember that Jesus says that every single 
word we speak will be brought into judgment, because it 
is part of ourselves for ever. 

Third. Learn the wisdom of keeping silence at the 



74 Silence. 

right time. In hell are many good resolutions and few 
deeds; in heaven are only deeds, and no resolutions that 
have not been kept. We must make earth heaven by fill- 
ing it with deeds, with love, with power of will, and with 
knowledge. 

Remember that those who talk do not know, and those 
who know do not talk. 

Remember that those who talk have no strength of 
will, and those who have power of will do not talk. 

Remember that those who talk do not act ; and those 
who act do not talk. 

Remember that those who talk do not love, and those 
wrho love do not talk. 

Remember that there is a time to talk, and that there is 
a time to keep silent. 

Remember this now ; and remember that you will be 
reminded of this when it will be too late, on the day of 
judgment. God have mercy on us then ! 



XII. 

THE KEYS. 

St. Matt, xvi, 19: St. Luke xi, 52; Rev. i, 18. 

The references to keys found in the New Teatameni, 
are extremely suggestive. First, Jesus promises Peter 
to give him the ^^keys of the kingdom of heaven." Jesug 
confers elsewhere the same power of loosing and unloos- 
ing on all the disciples, so that Peter stands in no pro 
eminence. Second, to the Pharisees Jesus said: "Woe 
unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key ol 
knowledge ; you entered not in yourselves, and them that 
were entering in ye hindered. '^ John saw, thirdly. Him 
like unto the Son of man, and heard him say, "I am he 
that liveth and was dead and, behold, I am alive for ever- 
more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death." 

I. On these texts, the first and the most natural 
observation is that the Kingdom of Heaven is only ac- 
cessible by a key. 

In order to understand the full significance of a key, 
it may be worth while to consider what is known in 
general concerning such an instrument. It may have 
happened to most of us, at some time of our lives, to re- 
turn home late at night, and to find that the latch- 
key had been forgotten when going out, or had been 
mislaid. In such a moment of unpleasant surprise 
the full value of a key became evident. Nor would 
any key do. There is need of one particular key, that 



^ 



76 The Keys. 



will just fit the lock, neither more, nor less. For the 
lack of that one key, it may be necessary to spend the 
night at a hotel, or to walk the streets in the cold 
and the rain till the morning, or to break open a sash 
or door-panel by violence, or to fetch a locksmith. Com- 
pare with all this annoyance the comfort of entering 
home any time of day or night, without the least exertion. 
This is a parable of the Kingdom. He who does not 
possess the exact key, like which there is no other one 
in existence, by which the gate of Heaven opens forth- 
with, without effort, will never be able to enter. 

II. The second consideration which the texts ad- 
duced suggest is, If it be true that all this is a parable, 
what is the application of it? What part of our prac- 
tical life is the key of Heaven. 

The key of Heaven is nothing more nor less than 
man himself. The lock is this beautiful world; the 
street from which man seeks to depart is the natal con- 
dition of subjection to the lusts of the flesh, and the 
house is our long-lost home, from which we strayed 
so long ago, the dwelling of our Father. 

Modern Yale locks are so made that only one single 
key in the world will open it. If you have lost the 
key, there is only one thing to do, to break the lock, 
and put in a new one. You are all aware that when 
business men lose the combination of their safe, the 
Safe manufacturers have to hire burglars from State 
Prison to break it open. But the Kingdom of Heaven 
cannot be broken by any burglar, or cracked by any 
dynamite. Unless we have the right combination, un- 
less the key is exactly the right one, never to all eter- 
nity will the Gate swing open, and the angels 
come out to meet and greet us. The point before us 
is as follows : God made the lock of Heaven, that is, this 
world, in such a fashion, that man will never be able to 



The Keys. yy 

open the lock of life until he has succeeded in making 
himself exactly of a certain pattern. It is therefore not a 
matter of good intentions; this is a mere matter of knowl- 
edge and use of it. No man can enter heaven until he 
have conquered the lusts of the flesh, selfishness, anger 
and hate. Only to him that overcometh himself will be 
given the crown of life. 

III. These thoughts open the way to the third con- 
sideration. It is not sufficient, first, to know that the 
Kingdom is accessible only to a key, and secondly, that 
man is himself the key. It must be pointed out, thirdly, 
to what most men are keys. 

Now a locksmith alters the kev in order to fit the 
lock, and not the lock to the key. Most men, however, 
expect God to alter the world, and God's requirements 
for admission to Heaven so as to fit themselves. It is 
surprising how many men there are who never dream 
of the possibility that they will be rejected at the last 
day. They lead comfortable, careless lives with the full 
expectation of going to glory the moment they die. Even 
if they are told that only those who are worthy find ad- 
mittance, they suppose that they will be just good 
enough to be let in, and that their enemies and neigh- 
bors will be just bad enough to be excluded. They have 
no idea of changing themselves. They never think that 
unless the blank key is fitted to the lock it will never 
turn. 

Many try to unravel the mystery of life once in their 
existence, and if they fail, they suppose it is impossible 
to do so. Or, they catch at some idea and hold to it ob- 
stinately to the end of their lives, whether it accounts 
for all the facts, and really assists them to lead nobler 
lives, or not. How foolish they are you can imagine by 
thinking of a locksmith who should be called to open a 
locked door whose key had been lost, and who would 



78 The Kevs. 



try a certain key, and when it failed to open, would, 
mthout trying further, give up in despair, saying that 
the door could never be opened. I wonder whether you 
would pay him high wages for such ser-\dce? Or, if he 
tried to open the door, and being unsuccessful, chose a 
certain key, and said it was the key of the house, although 
it did not open the door, would you not consider him 
crazed ? What use would be the key if it did not open 
the lock, and admit us to the fire, the bread and meat 
of the comfortable room mthin? 

There is one part of the parable that must not be over- 
looked. It is to enter this fulness of life and joy while 
still in the mantle of this flesh that we seek the key that 
shall unlock it. That we have entered the house-king- 
dom will be proved, not by vain boasting, but by the 
actual proof of disposal of these perfections. It is a house- 
kingdom w^orth entering ... it contains all that 
makes life worth living. 

The fact is, the key must be altered to open the lock, 
and it does not matter what be the shape of the key as 
long as it draws back the bolt. We must experiment 
ceaselessly, until we succeed. We must cut off some- 
thing here, add a little there, file down this side, and 
turn the other. We must expect that it will at last be in 
a different shape from what it is now. 

Some one will ask, is there anything to guide a man in 
this experiment? The answer is, Nothing but experience. 
^Nevertheless, you will discover that if you read the Bible 
very carefully you will find that your particular key is 
described therein ; and when you are successful you will 
be very angry wath yourself for having made the experi- 
ments much longer and harder by refusing to listen to 
the precepts and descriptions to be found in that book. 

If one key opens only one lock, then, if a key opens 
one lock, it will not open another. Most of us, my be- 



The Keys. 79 



lovedj are misfit keys. That is^ misfit, in respect to the 
Gate of Heaven. One of us opens the door of the theatre, 
fast enough, I warrant yon; but when it comes to the 
door of Bethel, the house of God . . . then hear 
it fumble and crack. Another of us opens the baseball 
and football field; another, shopping; another, recep- 
tions, dinners, teas, the markethouse, the counting-house, 
the bank, the insurance house, the railroad, even per- 
haps the clergy-house . . . but when you come to 
try the world-lock, the Gate of Heaven . . . you 
may pull and you may push until you are red in the face 
but the lock never yields one hair's breadth. Misfit 
keys we are ; we had better see to it that by reflection and 
experiment we so alter the form and substance of it that 
the Gate of Heaven may open to let us in. 

Here are four short practical suggestions. 

(1.) When you introduce a key into the hole of the 
lock, it is necessary to turn the key from right to left, 
or from left to right. Otherwise it will not open the 
lock. This is a parable of human life. ISlo human soul 
will ever unlock the world-lock until all the currents 
of its life be thoroughly turned into the contrary direc- 
tion; that is, until it be quite converted. ^^ Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, except a man 
be regenerated, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

(2.) A key is an instrument to save labour for the 
hand. Therefore it performs labour; it is pushed in 
one direction so hard till it in its turn pushes the bolt. 
Consequently, it is hard work for the key; it suffers. 
So Jesus, the Great Eternal Masterkey, when on Gethse- 
mane he was turning the world-lock, when he was solv- 
ing the problem of life, throwing back the bolt of flesh 
which should open to all who heed it the full glory of 
the kingdom of heaven, he, Jesus, ^^liis sweat was as it 
were great drops of blood falling down to the ground'^ 



8o The Keys. 



while he was praying. Do not forget, only by suffering, 
by sorrow, by the valley of the Shadow of Death, by the 
vale of Bochim, does the human soul-key turn the world- 
lock. If you are looking for a life of ease and comfort, 
think twice before you undertake the road. 

aS or is this turning the only pain. In order to fit the 
lock the key must be punched here, cut off there, added 
to on the other side. Reconstructing the human soul- 
key is no fun; it is pain. Be prepared for it. 

(3.) Has it ever happened to you to lose your bunch 
of keys? Let this teach us that it is possible, after once 
learning the truth, to slide back, to lose it, to return to 
the mire from which we were cleansed. The soul-key 
that has once learnt the truth, but has forgotten it, is 
in as bad a condition as the soul-key that has never learnt 
it. Unless we are persistent, and hang on to it doggedly 
we may lose it again. I know a man who during the 
twenty-seven years of his life has three times found the 
trutli, and three times lost it. Only a few months ago 
he found it for the fourth time. God grant that he may 
not lose it again. But he is not worse than myself, or 
than any of us. Who dare say that he has never fallen 
from the truth he has once known? Let us be humble, 
and pray God if perchance of His infinite mercy He may 
keep us from losing our bunch of keys, and if we lose it, 
that we may soon find it again. I should advise, if you 
have your bunch of keys, hang it round your neck by an 
unbreakable chain; hold it tight; you never know when 

vou will need it. 

*/ 

(4.) When we go home, and find the door locked, 
and nobody is at home, we have to st-ay outside just as 
long as we have no key that fits the lock. So with the 
Kingdom of Heaven. Is it not advisable to get the 
knowledge by which you can unlock this world immedi- 
ately? What is the use of waiting? You are only losing 



The Keys. 8i 



time and opportunities; vou will never be younger than 
jou are now. Let us be warned; we will be kept stand- 
ing out in the cold and the darkness and the fog, until 
the desolation of despair of lost opportunities will show 
us at the left . . . not the right ... of the 
throne, amidst the lightnings of the wrath of God. Get 
yourselves wisdom, ere it be too late. "Wisdom is price- 
less, but in the reach of all. She standeth at the corners 
of the streets, offering her priceless treasures for naught. 
Be wise while there is yet time. 

Find the key of life and use it; and you will find our- 
s«lf in God. 



XTIJ. 
BOCHIM. 

"And they called the name of the place, Bochim," — ^Judges ii: 5, 

Abraham went into the Promised Land, led by his 
fftith in God; but he never owned more of it than sufficed 
for his own grave. Patriarch after patriarch saw the 
hope still before him, but the last of them died strangers 
in a foreign land. Hope once more returned to the chil- 
dren of Israel when Moses and Aaron led them into the 
desert, standing between them and God. But Aaron 
took off his blue robe and was gathered unto his fathers 
on the top of Mount Hor in the midst of the weary wil- 
derness; and Moses was last seen by the tented hosts of 
Israel as a speck on the summit of Pisgah on Mount Xe- 
bo gazing, with face at last unveiled, into that Promised 
Land he was not to touch with the sole of his feet. After 
them, Joshua and Eliazar arose, and in silence led the 
hosts of Israel to the Jordan. Jericho was taken, Ai 
razed, and Makkedah won. But when all the elders 
which had known all the works of the Lord which He had 
performed by the hands of Mose5 and Aaron crowded 
around the biers of Joshua and Eliazar, they still saw 
the strongholds of the Midianites towering in the fast- 
nesses of the mountains. And now, when at last they had 
learnt by all their late reverses that their enemy could 
only be driven out in the name of Jahweh, the Angel of 
the Lord came up from Gilgal and said, ^^I have made you 
to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the 
land which I sware unto vour forefathers ; and I said, I 



Bochim. 83-, 

will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall 
make no league with the inhabitants of the land : ye shall 
throw down their altars; but ye have not obeyed my 
voice. Why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, 
I will not drive them out before you, but they shall be 
as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare 
unto you." Is it any wonder then that it came to pasa 
that when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto 
all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their 
voice and wept, and called the name of that place Bo- 
chim, which is, being interpreted, the place of weeping. 

Amidst their bitter weeping the people felt that the 
hour of judgment had come full righteously; that the 
Angel of the Lord was right, and that if they had not 
driven out the enemy in the past, they could never hope 
to do so in the future. They were now not as strong as 
they had been when they crossed the Jordan on dry foot. 

First, they had lost the eagerness and impetus of the 
first attack. They had lost the advantage of the great 
terror which had at first unnerved the five kings of Mak- 
kedah, and the sons of Anak and the Zamzummims stood 
up to battle before the face of Israel at Gaza, Gatli and 
Ashdod. Third they had lost their leader; each man did 
that which was good in his own eyes. How could small 
bands conquer large cities? Fourth, they had lost their 
faith, since Jericho, Ai, and Makkedah. Fifth, they had 
lost their character of pilgrims; they were too busy se- 
curing booty each man for himself to continue fighting 
for the Lord. They had, in the sixth place, lost their 
youth. The Israelites who had tempted God at Meribah, 
had left their bones in the desert. Caleb, Joshua, and 
the elders of their generation had passed away. They 
themselves had been born in sight of the Jordan, and had 
always lived in the future. Now they lived in the past, 
their power for work was over. Seventh, they had lost 



84 Bochim. 

their standard. Instead of destroying the rich Canaanite, 
they had been content to take tribute of him^ and the re- 
sult was that he still existed, and remained a source of 
danger; no more transitory, but permanent. 

In the first bitterness of tears the elders realized that 
God would no more remove the Canaanite out of the 
land, in order to strengthen their weak will and lusting 
heart by successive and continuous struggles. David 
only became a man because a lion threatened his flock. 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, would not have sung, la- 
mented or prophesied, had the times not been evil. And 
perhaps it was the utter need and helpless hopelessness 
of the dark world which called the Divine Being to the 
stable of ITazareth to heal, to satisfy and bless. Perhaps 
«ome of the elders realized that God in his infinite Father- 
heart yearns for the return of the spirits that have once 
left His breast, that they might find in Him their 
eternal peace. For this progress, to force them to become 
better and stronger, even if as though by fire, the Angel 
of the Lord as he came up from Gilgal decreed the Ca- 
naanite should remain for ever in the land, and remain a 
thorn in their sides, that they might seek their God, and 
haply find Him in the hour of trouble, if they had not 
enough faith and love to seek Him in the hour of joy. 

II. This narrative is not only history; it is also para- 
T3le; parable for you, parable for me, parable for to-day; 
parable for all time. 

It is in the first place a very plain parable of practical 
life. The child new-born has all opportunities before it. 
The character of education limits the opportunities. 
Then comes youth, school and recreation. Finally the 
young man chooses a career. All other opportunities 
but that are gone. The young man is free to choose a 
wife from any girl he sees; he chooses; henceforth there 
is no salvation for him except with that one woman of all 



Bochim. 



ocliers. Now there is notliing left him to do but to make 
the best use possible of the circumstances in which he is 
placed; to intensify work in that one department of all 
others. Being a chemist, his only hope lies in becoming a 
good chemist; no other field is open to him; all other 
opportunities are gone. Lost opportunities cannot be 
awakened to life again. The weakness, the sin, the igno- 
rance which was not overcome in youth is never over- 
come before death. At a certain age every man becomes 
settled in habits of thought and acquisition of knowledge. 
When that young man became settled in life, he came to 
Bochim; and many the tears he shed there. 

It is in the second place a parable of the way in which 
God judges man. God is very merciful, but He is just. 
God gives every man a certain length of time in which ta 
amend or accomplish his task. If he is unsuccessful God 
gives him a respite; if unsuccessful again, a still shortei 
further one. After several respites, if not successful, 
God, with tears in His eyes, judges His wandering child; 
the opportunities are gone. The end has come. This is 
just like a man walking across the country and coming to 
the parting of two ways. Even after he has chosen one 
way, he may turn back a little bit, and change his choice; 
but as soon as the roads have separated, he must go on his 
road, perhaps for miles and over precipices before he can 
once more join the other, after many delays and devia- 
tions. 

Bochim is in the third place a parable of hell, that is, of 
failure. The only real cause of weeping is wasted time; 
beside this all other causes pale into insignificance. 
Wasted opportunities, wasted life — how terrible. We 
are told in the 'New Testament that Hell is a place of 
weeping; so is Bochim, Hell is the same as Bochim: it 
is a time when judgment has gone forth that the oppor- 
tunities are wasted and the soul is condemned to abide, 



•S6 Bochim. 

like Israel, with the Canaanites around it, for thorns in 
the flesh, for ever. 

Those who have once been in Bochim, in the Valley of 
Baca, in Hell, never forget it. You can tell them from 
souls who have not been there by the fact that they 
never laugh freely again; they always relapse into silence. 

The inhabitants of the world may be divided into two 
great classes. Those who have been in Bochim, and 
those who have not. 

Those who have not been in Bochim are usually the 
young — and a few, very few, old men. For God's sake 
take care, O young people, that you do not come to Bo- 
chim. Let me remind you that many go in thereat; few 
there be that come out. If while you are young you do 
not free yourselves from your sins and weaknesses, they 
will grow into habits; and the Angel of the Lord will 
^ome up from Gilgal to set his face against you, to tell 
you the Lord has judged you, and that your sins will 
cleave to you as long as you live. Oh, if you knew the 
agony of having to bear your sins with you all your life, 
you would wake up. 

I plead not only with the young. I plead with the 
souls more advanced in years. Take good care of the 
children, in the Sunday School, in the day-school, in the 
Tiome, in the play-ground. Teach them early the terri- 
ble significance of early self-indulgence and self-gratifica- 
tion. O do not let them be ignorant of the pitfalls of 
pleasure ! O teach them to love duty, and to seek to do 
it more and more! I beseech you for the young; warn 
them of Bochim; of the heat, and the bitterness of the 
tears that are wept there; of the sadness of the life after 
Bochim; of the weariness of never in this life being able 
to destroy the habits of the Canaanites from out the land. 
Have mercy on the children! Love them, teach them, 
reprove them. 



Bochim. 87 



So much for those who have not yet been in Bochim, 
and whoj therefore, need never come there unless it be 
their fault. But also, what shall we say to the souls who 
have been in Bochim, and over whom the purple veil of 
the Will of God rests? Let us not spend time in senti- 
mentality. Lost opportunities are dead, inexorably dead, 
dead as a door-nail, dead as a body in the dissecting-room. 
Let us not waste time in dreaming of what might have 
been. Let us not waste time in weeping. Let us not 
throw the axe-head away after the handle is broken. Let 
us not refuse to live because part of our life is wasted. 
Do not deceive yourselves. Those who have been in Bo- 
chim will never be able to catch up for lost time. It is 
gone, foolishly wasted, dispersed. And the worst of it is, 
that it has separated us from our loved ones, who have 
not been in Bochim. What shall be said to them? Shall 
curses be used? Shall sneers, gibes, reproaches be used? 
No. Bless and curse not. They have all the punishment 
they deserve and can bear already. Simply remind them 
to make the best use possible of what little time remains 
before the Great Second Advent. Do the best you can 
to-day, and you will conquer to-morrow. But you will 
never be able to make up for yesterday. Do the best you 
can to-day. 

What? Is yesterday lost for ever? Yes; for ever. 
Are all further opportunities also gone for ever? Is there 
no hope for those in Hell, in Bochim, in the Valley of the 
Shadow of Death, to retrieve in the future past errors? 

Let me tell you what a wise man whose writings were 
considered Scripture in the early Church thought on the 
subject. I am referring to Hermas. Hermas saw a vis- 
ion (Bk. I, Vis. III. Ch. VII). He saw a tower being 
built, in which each well-polished stone was a bishop, a 
presbyter, a deacon, a faithful Christian or a Virgin — 
chastity being demanded of all. But Hermas saw many 



Bochim. 



stones rejected by the builders. Hermas asked of bia 
guide: ^^Is repentance possible for all those stones which 
have been cast away and did not fit into the building of 
the tower, and will they yet have a place in this tower ?'^ 
The guide answered : ^^Eepentance is yet possible, but in 
this tower they cannot find a suitable place. But in 
another and much inferior place they will be laid, and 
that, too, only when they have been tortured — in Bochim, 
the place of weeping — and have completed the days of 
their sins. And on this account will they be transferred, 
because they have partaken of the righteous Logos of 
God." So we may hope that not in this life, but some- 
where beyond, sometime, somewhere, somehow, God will 
wipe away all tears from the eyes of the souls that have 
long dwelt in the Shadow of Death, and crown them with 
a crown of life, and light and peace. But, how long, O 
Lord, how long must they wait for that ! 

Beloved brethren, pray for the souls in Bochim! 

Pray for the souls that have not yet been in Bochim, 
that they may never see that place of weeping, that the 
Angel of the Lord may never come up against them from 
Gilgal, may never force them to dwell all the days of 
their life chained down to the sins of their youth. Pray, 
pray for them, my beloved brethren, before the great 
Coming of the Second Advent! 



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